Seven Keys
by scentedglitter
Summary: Beca Mitchell is the lead vocalist in a band by the name of 'Seven Keys' that had one huge song before they (willingly) faded into obscurity. The music video for that song made Chloe Beale realise something kind of big. What happens when Beca & Chloe keep running in to each other? Bechloe endgame. Rated M for language and possible future sexual references.
1. Chapter 1: Disneyland

**A/N: I had an idea, I am writing the idea even though it's pre-Christmas and I work in retail. It's looking like it'll be about 6 chapters, and I hope to post the last chapter on New Years Eve, so hopefully regular-ish updating? Anyway, let's get to that fic.**

 **(Edit: Updated a few hours after posting because, hey, I should really proofread shouldn't I?)**

* * *

"So, why do we need to go to Disneyland again?" Aubrey asks, raising an eyebrow at her two friends as she pours a coffee from the machine in the kitchenette of their hotel room.

"Because this is why we came here!" Chloe exclaims, her voice rising in agitation, a little too lost in her Disney obsession to notice Aubrey was joking.

"Chloe, chill. I'm kidding. Just let me wake up, okay?" she gestures to the coffee in her hand. Chloe visibly relaxes, nodding before she turns and walks over to where she'd thrown her backpack when they'd got back to the hotel after watching the fireworks last night.

"Can I convince either of you to wear your graduate pins today?" Chloe breaks the comfortable silence in the room a few minutes later, fishing said pins out of her bag and holding them up towards Amy and Aubrey.

"Are we meant to be wearing them though? Like, isn't it an American college graduation thing, not Australian high school?" Aubrey asks.

"Fuck no, we're graduates! Wear the damn pin!" Amy cheers, rushing over and grabbing one out of Chloe's hand. The other two just shake their heads, because you don't go to school with someone like Amy for six years and not get at least a little bit used to the occasional burst of hype.

Some of their peers had occasionally – okay, regularly – questioned why Amy was friends with Chloe and Aubrey, given Chloe was a straight-A humanities nerd; Aubrey a straight-A science nerd, and Amy bragged about having failed every subject at least once. Chloe questioned it too, although for different reasons, as they finally walked out the main entrance of Disneyland Resort. Aubrey smiled politely at the doorman, Chloe smiled widely, and Amy tried to go for a high-five. Granted, it was Disney, so the doorman in question quickly got over his surprise and high-fived the exuberant almost-adult.

"Getting all the duuuu-" Amy called out as they walked the short distance from the hotel to the park entrance, Aubrey quickly slapping a hand over her face. "Whmmmph?" Amy tried to speak against Aubrey's hand.

"Shut up, there's kids around. I feel like I'm being your damn parent here, Amy, and you're no help, Chloe-" Aubrey paused, realising Chloe was glancing off in an entirely different direction looking mildly confused. "Chloe?" Aubrey removed her hand from Amy's face (with much drama following, although she chose to ignore it) to jab Chloe in the side.

"Oh, sorry, I swear I saw-" Chloe stopped, shaking her head, "never mind. Where were we?"

"Telling Amy not to be creepy to doormen when there's heaps of kids around," Aubrey answered.

"I know, that was hypothetical. C'mon, let's get to breakfast, this place is meant to be good," Chloe grabs Aubrey's hand to drag her over to the park entrance, knowing that Amy would be following close behind them. Hopefully.

Only ten minutes later, the three friends were seated peacefully at a table outside a café on Main Street, looking over their menus. They were seated after nine minutes, but Aubrey spent a good minute bragging about how useful her preparedness was in getting them from the resort to a table in such a quick time when they'd woken up late. The other two dared not point out which of them had been the last up, but Chloe did point out whose idea it was to wear the 'Just Graduated' pins that got them a free coffee each, Aubrey merely sighing and taking a sip of said coffee in response.

The girls were chatting amicably, halfway through their meals when Chloe glanced up, doing a double take – okay, triple – at a small brunette sitting by herself at the table under the gazebo at the edge of the restaurant. She swore she recognised the girl, from one of her favourite, albeit largely unknown, bands, and they were kind of in LA…

"Holy shit, is that Beca Mitchell? I thought I saw her earlier, but I wasn't sure, but that's totally Beca Mitchell" Chloe whisper-yelled, kicking Amy under the table when she went to turn around. "Don't fucking look! You're so obvious"

"I'll be subtle!" Amy promised defensively, but shook her head and stayed facing Chloe, who was glaring at her. "Okay, angry ginger, calm down"

"I can't tell if it's her or not, but I think it is?" Chloe continued, her mind running faster than she could keep up with. There was a slight chance that seeing Beca Mitchell in a music video for that one song from Seven Keys – Beca's band – that made them super famous for all of two months had been the moment Chloe realised how super gay she was, and-

Aubrey's poke in her arm was enough to snap Chloe back to her friends. "Do you really want to be staring at her, Chloe?"

"Yeah, go say hi! Ask if it is her!" Amy finished Aubrey's statement.

"No! Isn't that weird? You'll look like an idiot if you're wrong," Aubrey argued, and Chloe shrugged, glancing back up to maybe-Beca-Mitchell, who was tapping her fingernails on the table impatiently and sipping from a glass of orange juice.

"Maybe I'll work it out when she comes closer, she'd have to move closer to us to leave," Chloe points out, almost hopefully, ignoring Aubrey's raised eyebrow and going back to the food in front of her.

* * *

"I'm not going on the teacups ever again, I don't care if it's a kids ride, the spinning-"

"Oh my god, that's her boyfriend!" Chloe interrupts Amy some time further in to their breakfast, watching as a guy she definitely recognises – he's on Beca's Instagram a lot, no minor-celebrity-stalking involved here – walks up to the table the maybe-Beca-Mitchell girl is sitting at, conversing with the girl for a minute before a waiter appears beside them and maybe-Beca stands up. "Shit, they're coming this way" Chloe mumbles, turning back to see Amy grinning widely at her and Aubrey looking mildly disappointed.

"Boyfriend, hey?" Amy teases, and Chloe sighs.

"I think so."

"He must be late, you should've swept in before he got there and convinced her to switch for someone who's on time," Amy's voice increases much too far in volume for Chloe's liking as the two strangers take their new seats at a table just across from Chloe, so she quickly shushes her, forcing herself to draw the conversation in another direction.

Chloe pretends she doesn't try and quickly glance at the girl's ID sitting beside her on the table when they walk past later – she can't make out the name quickly enough – and continues to pretend she isn't kicking herself for not at least asking for a selfie for the rest of the day as she traipses around Disneyland, her disposition a tiny bit less sunny than usual, but only a tiny bit, because it is Disney, and she's Chloe Beale.

"Hey, Chloe," Aubrey grabs her attention later in the evening when the two girls are relaxing in their hotel room, Amy having volunteered to go on a "daring mission to a faraway land": downstairs, to get takeaway.

"Yeah?" Chloe asks, shifting herself over onto Aubrey's bed and taking the phone handed to her. She grimaces when she realises what Aubrey is showing her: Beca took a selfie with her boyfriend at the café in Disneyland and posted it on Twitter earlier in the day. It was her.

"Should've said hi to her, I know you're weirdly obsessed," Aubrey comments.

"Bitch, you told me not to, Bree!" Chloe exclaims, although Aubrey knows her well enough to know she's not serious.

"Maybe next time."

"Fuck knows there won't be one, we're going back to Australia in like five days and I doubt Seven Keys or Beca Mitchell singularly are going to be in Australia any time soon if they aren't even making more music," Chloe rants, Aubrey pulling Chloe into a hug as she realises this may have hit her ray-of-sunshine best friend a little harder than she thought.

* * *

 **A/N 2: Including Beca's perspective in potential future situations y/n?**


	2. Chapter 2: Beca & Jesse

**A/N:** **Going with yes on Beca's perspective for general ~feel~. Also, I definitely remembered to proofread this time.**

 **And yes, I'm definitely taking on the 'raincloud/sunshine' thing that Kendrick talked about recently.**

* * *

Beca Mitchell wasn't exactly having the greatest start to her day. Okay, so she'd waltzed into Disneyland, of all places, for breakfast just after 9am. She merely tapped her annual pass band (that she'd managed to get her mother to pay for) to get through the gates, and she'd spent the drive here listening to the completed demo of a new track she'd recorded with Seven Keys a week or so ago – but Jesse was late.

Again.

He was meant to meet her outside the park at 8:50, but Beca had parked at 8:54 – exactly, she checked – sweating about her own delay, only to check her phone and see a message that he'd be "a bit late, just go sit down". Beca took the opportunity to choose to sit at a different café to the one they'd decided on the night before, more out of spite than anything else (and, okay, the outdoor gazebo table was beautiful and in the sun where the other café was in the shade, but Beca took pride in being a perpetual raincloud and liked to keep those thoughts to herself).

The waitress recognised Beca (and so, she thought, did a redhead on a table slightly further into the café) and let her sit there for twenty minutes having only ordered a single orange juice before asking her if she was going to order anything.

"I'm sorry…" Beca started, trying to come up with a lie, "I was meant to meet my boyfriend here but he's got really caught up somewhere, he should be here in a minute, we'll order then."

In truth, Jesse hadn't provided an excuse, he was just late. Beca sighed quietly to herself and spun the now two-thirds-empty glass of juice around on the table, glancing at all the people around her. Lots of families, as there always were at Disney – and the redhead. She was sitting with two blondes, one of them loudly rushing through sentences that Beca half-heartedly tried not to eavesdrop on, aided by the accent of the girl that she couldn't quick pick out. She almost wished redhead had gone on the recognition that seemed to flash across her face when Beca first sat down and came over to ask for a picture or something, at least so Beca could have something to distract her from this situation.

"Hey babe," Jesse finally arrived a few minutes later, just as Beca had got her head around the louder blonde's accent – Australian, or New Zealand, she thinks – and started listening to her rant about teacup rides. Beca waited for Jesse to say more, but he didn't.

"You going to sit down?" she asked, instead, looking up at him.

"Uh… would you be cool with moving back over there?" he asks, and Beca considers arguing, given there was literally no point to his suggested move, but… It's Disney. She doesn't want to further this weird tension with Jesse, she wants it to be gone. So, she puts on a smile and nods, motioning over a waitress to request they move to the other table before placing their orders. Beca makes sure their breakfast is uneventful from then on in, quietly stealing glances at the three girls on the table to her right. They look like they're having fun, and Beca tries to convince herself that she is too, as she listens to Jesse talk about a new movie about space or… something.

Beca thought they were going to stay at Disney for a while after breakfast – sue her, she likes rollercoasters – but Jesse mentions as they finish their meals that he needs to head somewhere for a meeting with a client.

"Oh, you didn't mention you had a new one?" Beca asks, genuinely interested, and he shrugs.

"Not important. I should get going soon, anyway, are you right to go?" Jesse responds, and Beca is mildly taken aback by how quickly he brushes off her question – although, maybe he's just crazy busy this morning. And he did still manage to make breakfast with her, at least for a while. He has to get some good points for that.

Still, Beca stews on her own car ride back to her parent's place. A week ago she'd been talking to Jesse about how maybe now that they were both past their school years (granted, Beca dropped out of school when Seven Keys suddenly became popular about the same time Jesse graduated 18 months ago), and they'd been together for three years, maybe they should move in to a new place together. It was a conversation full of care and mutual understanding, but Beca felt zero of that care from her boyfriend today. Or yesterday when she was at his place and could barely get a full sentence out of him.

Maybe Jesse was just busy at the moment. He was, after all, an increasingly successful composer – he was (paid! God, Beca was jealous…) interning with a genuine movie production company in their sound department, and he'd ascended from mere intern to actually helping write music in less than twelve months, to the point that he had his own clients, like the one today. In all honesty, even if he wasn't super attentive right now, Jesse was perfect for Beca. Although she didn't exactly share his love of movies, they had a shared interest in music generally. He was polite. Her parents liked him. They'd known each other so long they knew almost everything about each other, and they'd been together for so long that anything else would just be weird. And that was probably why they sometimes didn't feel _together_ at the moment, anyway – it was just so normal that Beca was entirely used to it. And that was okay.

So, Beca got home and retreated to her bedroom to analyse the demo she was sent before talking to her bandmates about it, reminding herself that there was absolutely nothing wrong with her life. Even if she still kind of wished that by some chain of events, she'd ended up spending her day at Disney with that random redhead and her friends.


	3. Chapter 3: Change

**A/N** **1:** So, twenty-odd day delay on posting because Christmas/New Year is always a crazy time of year for me and business/family/oh-shit-I-need-to-rent-a-house issues made it even worse this year so writing stopped for a while (and what I wrote in ch 1 & 2 wasn't great, I'm aware). Chapter 3 is here finally, though, and the rest of it is roughly planned, at least. Can't promise quick posting because the house hunting thing is ongoing but I can promise chapters that I'm at least a little happier with than the previous ones.

 **A/N 2 JuliusKing's Review:** Chloe, Aubrey & Amy are Aussie, as is everyone else mentioned alongside Chloe's side of the story. Everyone mentioned alongside Beca is American. Short/etc are for reasons stated above. Beca is intentionally written younger in 1 & 2\. And hey, the "is he terrible or just distracted" boyfriend situation is resolved in Chapter 3, so read on!

* * *

Beca drummed her fingers against the back of her phone lightly, taking a deep breath as she looked out over the valley. The news that her band's second album was going to have to be delayed – a little bit her fault, if she was honest – wasn't something she wanted to hear. Jesse hanging up on her after fifty seconds when she rang him to try and talk it through wasn't either. So, Beca had ran away.

Okay, so she hadn't really ran away. She was only a few miles from her parents' house, and this hill was one that she had hiked many times in the past. She just needed a break. Between everything with the band in the last ten months since they'd finalised the demo for this album, her brother's new kid, and the ongoing strange vibe with Jesse, Beca was tired. There was really no other way to describe it. She needed a five-week break, preferably as far away from other people as possible. Pushing her low tolerance for physical exercise and hiking up a largely unknown mountain remembered from her childhood was the closest she could get.

Beca had always been an introvert, so that wasn't new. Yeah, she performed shows in front of hundreds or thousands of people now, but performing was totally different to interacting. Performing was music, and she loved music. It was just… everything else.

Seven Keys' issues had started when their bassist quit. He quit for an extremely valid reason – marrying and starting a family with his long-term girlfriend – and they could easily just get a touring bassist. However, their bassist happened to be Tristan, Beca's oldest brother, and he was the only thing keeping relationships smooth between Beca's sarcastic self and their fellow bandmates. Sure, she was friends with the guys long before they had been a band, having all gone to high school together. It just wasn't until after their first album that Beca realised her musical process was very much a solo one – not ideal for a band of four.

So, album number two was delayed because Beca lost all inspiration to make music. They were going to release a shorter EP instead, so at least that was something. They were still meeting their contract requirements. She wasn't really going to get in any trouble over any of it. Which is exactly what Jesse reassured her.

"Why do I still feel so shit about all of it, then?" Beca sighed.

"You just need to get over it quickly and you'll be fine. Anyway, I have to go," Jesse had replied, leaving Beca feeling yet another kind of empty and strange as he hung up. So, she ran for the hills. Figuratively. Still not keen on exercise.

Beca just wished Jesse was a little more like he was four years ago, caring and attentive whenever she reluctantly opened up about anything. Sometimes she felt as if she had been a puzzle for him to crack, and once she felt fine to talk to him, he lost interest. But surely he would've said something, not stayed with her this long, right? He was a nice guy.

'And hey, he's the only person I know who understands how powerful music is,' Beca thought to herself, reluctantly sitting herself down on a tree stump and throwing her earphones in, trying to drown out her thoughts.

* * *

Chloe loved university even more than high school. She was living with her best friends, partying in the city, and studying her heart out. Sure, there had been a rather significant degree change from economics to anthropology at the end of her first semester a few months ago, but that was okay. Math just wasn't her thing - Aubrey could keep that.

"Is it cool if Stacie comes over tonight?" Aubrey asks as she wanders into the kitchen/dining room just after arriving home from her late class, straightening the placemats on their table as she walks past.

"Of course," Chloe answers, briefly looking up from the book in front of her.

"Just keep it down with the girl!" Amy adds.

"We don't make any noise though," Aubrey defends, quickly met with disbelieving stares from both of her roommates. "Okay, fine. Not my fault she's loud," she mumbles her response, continuing through the kitchen to put her bag away.

"Give yourself more credit!" Amy calls out after her, earning a snigger from Chloe. Chloe's pretty sure that Amy was meant to be studying with her at the table - it hadn't taken too long for Amy to back away from her 'no uni' policy, having moved to Sydney with the other girls anyway and spending most of her time on campus. Amy, however, was clearly not studying, having pulled out her phone and started taking stupid selfies to send to some of their other friends. So, naturally, Chloe closed her book and went to jump in and ruin a few of them.

"Hey, shouldn't you be studying?" Amy pushes her out of the way.

"Says you," Chloe responds, rolling her eyes.

"Your exchange next year, though! You need to keep your GPA up!"

"I mean, yeah, but I'm pretty okay for all my courses. I am one hundred percent sure you're not."

"Well…" Amy shrugs, "Ps get degrees"

Predictably, Aubrey yelled something in response to that, but Chloe decided not to take any notice and returned to her books. Amy was half-right, her grades genuinely mattered this semester because whether she got the exchange position she really wanted in Toronto, or whether she got one of her other preferences or none at all, was entirely dependent on her grades. She was going okay anyway, but a little extra reassurance that she was soaking in all this information in the lead up to exams was never going to hurt.

"Have you submitted that application yet, Chlo?" Aubrey asked a little while later over dinner with Chloe, their conversation much calmer with their roommate having decided to go out with some other friends for dinner.

"Not just yet, they're not due until a month after final exams. I'll get this semester done first. I've kinda prepared everything already though," Chloe answers, shrugging.

"Think you'll get it?" Aubrey pushes her further, and Chloe takes a moment before answering.

"I'll definitely get an exchange. I don't know if it will be Toronto."

"I'm sure it will be."

Aubrey was right. Late February, three months after submitting her application, Chloe got a response: she had been accepted for a single-semester exchange to Toronto. She booked her flight there a few hours after finding out, and started trying to work out how many of her favourite bands were Canadian to make a hype playlist.

* * *

Ashley was very aware that there was nothing to read in to Beca claiming she was her closest friend and yet barely telling her anything about her life. That was just Beca, and Beca was a good listener when it came to Ashley's problems. So, she was a little surprised when Beca turned up at her apartment for one of their regular catch ups and asked if she could talk about something.

"Of course, Beca! What's up, and is this an alcohol talk?" Ashley answered her quickly, and Beca laughed.

"That's probably a bad idea. It's… Jesse, I think? And the band?" Beca's response was almost a question as she messily threw herself into the corner of Ashley's sofa. Ashley knew no response was needed, so she waited.

"I'm happy with the stuff we're working on for album two, and I'm getting along with the others okay again, but I still keep thinking of like… what happens next. Technically we're out of contract after this album, no tour required. And they'll totally sign us again, but for like five albums. Which is… a lot of years. And a lot of doing the same things."

"How long would five albums take?" Ashley asks, trying to push Beca on without being too direct. She was honestly a little surprised how much had just come out of her friend's mouth, and she didn't want to stop it.

"Like, it could be ten years. Or more. I'd be thirty by the time it was done… What if I want to have a normal job and a family and a house and shit by then? I mean, I kind of do want that, I think. I like making music but I don't want my whole life to be the public side of that…" Beca trails off, and Ashley nods, collecting her thoughts before she replies. Part of her knew this was coming.

"You should make sure you think about all of that before you commit to a long contract, I think, Beca. You don't have to stick with what you're doing now if you don't want to. Like, you could totally do it, but it's never really seemed like you wanted a heap of publicity."

"I don't. And honestly, I'm kind of ninety-five percent sure I don't want to stick with the band already but I kind of feel bad for deserting the others if they do want to keep doing it…"

"Maybe you need to have a chat to them about it kind of soon?"

"You're probably right." Beca says, nodding, before shifting around on the couch, seeming to have finished speaking.

"What was it about…" Ashley started, carefully, not sure if she should push the topic. Beca looked like she was waiting for the question to finish, however, so she did. "…Jesse?"

"I don't know…" Beca answers, half-hoping Ashley will accept it and move on.

"You've been with him for what, almost four years? Is it still going how you want it to?" Ashley pushes.

Dammit.

"Possibly… not? He used to be really easy to talk to, but now he brushes me off a lot. And I kind of do the same to him sometimes because I can't be bothered to talk to him…"

"You need to talk to him about it too, you know."

"I know."

Beca called a meeting with her band for the next day, because the sooner it was out of her head, the better. She hoped they were on the same page as her, or at least, they somehow knew what she was thinking before she'd have to say it. Even though that was unlikely.

"So, um… I'm not super keen on signing another contract after album two," Beca starts, expecting the worst.

"Oh, seriously? Same, honestly," Chris responds, with Dylan quickly agreeing.

"That was… way easier than I expected. Glad we're on the same page, guys. So I guess we've gotta make album two extra good if it's the last?" Beca turns their discussion around, and suddenly they're having an – extremely productive – album two brainstorming session.

It takes longer to talk to Jesse. Four weeks longer, to be exact. She was busy, and he was busy, and they didn't really have time to talk about anything, let alone anything serious. So, when they were finally both free (and Ashley had convinced her to stop putting it off), Beca told him that they needed to talk and asked him to come over to her place one morning.

"What's up, Bec?" he asked, sitting on the armchair beside Beca's sofa. It wasn't weird that he wasn't sitting beside her. (It was).

"Do you feel like our relationship stopped… doing anything?" Beca asks, "Like, I'm not totally sure what I mean, but sometimes it feels like we just kind of stopped."

"No, I get it. That makes sense. I think we did like a year ago," he responds, and Beca just nods in reply. He continues, mostly to fill the silence, "should we do something about it? Do we need to talk about moving in together again, or something? Or doing something different? I know I've been on my whole no sex before marriage thing, but it's very much a catholic school upbringing thing I could get over if you wanted me to-"

"No, not that," Beca cuts him off. "I… don't really see myself trying to push us any further. I think I've been more okay with us stopping than I should have been."

"I subconsciously knew I was neglecting our relationship. And it was me, I started it, when I stopped telling you anything about work, because I just… didn't feel like telling you. I shouldn't have just acted like I didn't know I was doing that," Jesse admits, his words coming out slower than usual as he tries to piece together what he means.

"I think we should break up," Beca tells him, feeling a twinge of guilt when she sees his face noticeably fall.

"I still think there's a possibility of us working things out, but if you don't want to do that, then I guess I have to respect that," he replies, a slight croak to his voice. Beca simply nods awkwardly in response. He is – was? – her first boyfriend. She's not quite sure what she's meant to do right now.

After thirty seconds of awkward silence, Jesse stands up from the couch and walks out of the room, through to the kitchen. Beca stands up herself when he returns a moment later, holding his keys and wallet. No more words are exchanged, but they communicate through forced facial expressions that he's going to leave now. Three minutes after he does, Beca gets her own keys and drives to Ashley's house.

"I broke up with Jesse and album two will be the last," Beca says, as soon as Ashley opens the door, her friend immediately grabbing her arm and pulling her inside.

"Really? When? How do you feel? How were Dylan and Chris?" Ashley's questions are rushed, before she remembers who she's talking to. "Sorry, too many questions-" Beca holds up a hand to stop her as they both slide on to chairs at Ashley's dining table.

"It's fine. They're easy. Yes, Jesse just now and the album four weeks ago, relieved, the guys felt the same," Beca's answers are brief, but she's not sure there is much to it.

"I'm glad you're relieved. Do you know what you're going to do now?"

"…Should I go to college?"


	4. Chapter 4: Toronto

**A/N:** time jump(s) ahead!

* * *

When Beca asked Ashley about college seven months ago, she didn't think she meant college in another country. Honestly, she was kind of hoping she could (somehow, having dropped out of high school in her junior year) get into UCLA, but it turns out she didn't actually like how they structured college in America anyway. Tristan had been the one to suggest she look at something elsewhere, as his best friend from high school had ended up at a college in Germany and loved it.

Beca was not going to Germany (she was bad enough at conversing in English, let alone having to learn a whole new language to study and converse in), but as she folded the final documents she'd had to collect and put them in the envelopes with her applications, she couldn't help bouncing on her toes a little in a combination of nerves and excitement. She now had four complete applications to colleges in Australia, and all she had to do was mail them off and wait for a response. The admissions staff had told her it'd be at least two months – December – before she heard anything back, but at least she had a final small-venue tour with Seven Keys to pass that time.

Two hours later, Beca slid the oversized envelopes into the post box outside the LAX International terminal, before meeting Chris, Dylan and their manager inside to fly to Toronto.

* * *

Toronto was bloody cold.

Okay, so Chloe had settled into the city as easily as she possibly could have after arriving here in late August. She loved her classes, the campus, all the things to do, the dorm she was living in. Most importantly, she loved the group of friends she'd made. They were making her time living in an entirely foreign city feel like home. But it was October, so it should have been autumn, and it was snowing. She knew what she was getting herself in to with Canada, but regardless, it was cold.

Quickly working out that the closest Starbucks to spend the two hours she had between lectures in was actually the one just off campus, Chloe changed direction and started trudging towards it through the white slush starting to pile on the sidewalk. Honestly, she hadn't really minded the snow before today, but today was actually more sleet than anything and it was gross and cold and she needed caffeine and sugar to deal with it.

Ten minutes later, Chloe had a caramel latte and an hour and fifty minutes still to kill, so she navigated the busy café to find somewhere to sit. She manages to grab a seat at a two-person table in the back corner, thanking the god of café spaces (she wasn't quite sure who that was, none of her classes had identified a culture with such a god just yet) as she watches others get increasingly frustrated as they struggle to find somewhere themselves. She really needs to respond to some messages she's got over the last couple of days from her friends in Australia, though, so she pauses her people-watching and pulls out her phone. She's partway through typing out a (mostly meme-filled) message to Amy when she hears a hesitant voice beside her and looks up.

"Any chance you'd be okay with a stranger sharing that table?" The small girl, definitely about Chloe's age, asks, and Chloe hopes that the sudden thundering of her heart when she recognises her isn't audible to anyone but herself.

"Oh, sure, go ahead," she answers quickly, and the girl thanks her before pulling out the spare seat and sliding into it, promptly looking down at the table away from Chloe as she sips at her drink. Chloe's eyes don't leave her, though, and she must sense it, because it's not long before she looks back up.

"Yeah?"

"Sorry, I just swear you look like the lead singer from a band I like. Seven Keys," Chloe explains, shrugging and trying to brush off her staring when she notices the mildly fearful look on the girl's face.

"Oh, yeah. That's me. Beca Mitchell," Beca responds with a sheepish smile, never sure how to respond when someone recognises her. As the redhead across from her smiles wildly in response, a wave of recognition moves through her own mind. "Wait… I feel like I've seen you before somewhere too?"

"I definitely haven't met you before, I swear I saw you at Disney in California once but I didn't say anyth-"

"Wait, was this like January last year at a breakfast place in Main Street?" Beca cuts her off, her mind working faster than she can keep up with it.

"Yeah, actually, why?" Chloe tilts her head as if to emphasise her question.

"That's where I remember you from! I knew I'd seen you before," Beca replies, and Chloe laughs, Beca making a mental note that her laugh matches the brightness of her hair. If Beca is the raincloud she always refers to herself as, this girl is definitely sunshine.

"I'm Chloe. Why'd you remember me?" Chloe asks, and Beca goes to refuse the question, because this girl is a total stranger so why on earth would she- but she supposes she'll have to talk to random strangers if she's moving countries next year, so maybe she should practice?

"I don't know, probably your hair," Beca finally answers, realising she's not totally sure herself, but the striking red hair definitely had to be part of it. "So, you live in Toronto?"

"Nope, doing an exchange semester at the university here. I'm from Sydney," Chloe answers, "what brings you to Toronto?"

"I thought I noticed an accent. And, um, we're doing a show Friday night."

"Oh, yeah, sold out, didn't it? That'd be pretty cool," Chloe answers.

"I guess so, yeah," Beca shrugs, "are you going?"

"Didn't hear about it until after it was sold out, so nope."

"Oh, that sucks," Beca pauses for a moment, "I mean, that came out way too conceited, but like-"

"Don't worry, it does kind of suck, I like your music and I doubt I'll ever see you guys perform back in Australia. But hey, you sat with me in a starbucks, so that's cool too," Chloe reassures her, "not that I'm going to go and be all weird about meeting you-"

"It's fine, you're not being weird," Beca takes her turn to reassure Chloe, before quickly pulling out her phone and throwing a text to her manager as she feels Chloe watching her, intrigued. "I could maybe get you some tickets, like I can't promise anything until my manager replies, but I can usually get some…"

"You don't need to do that, it's totally fine," Chloe replies quickly, feeling a little guilty as she watches Beca look back and type something else on her phone.

"No, consider it thanks for letting me sit here. I can get three tickets, I don't know if there's anyone you want to go with…" Beca trails off

"I've got a couple friends from my dorm here that'd be keen," Chloe answers carefully, and Beca nods.

"Could I have your number so I can get them sent through to you?"

* * *

"Could you repeat that about five times slower, Chloe?" Aubrey asks when Chloe starts their facetime call later that evening with a rush of excited sentences that Aubrey evidently cannot piece together.

"Sorry, I'm excited. I had coffee with Beca Mitchell today," Chloe answers, trying to look serious, although she can feel her cheeks burning so she's either blushing or smiling too hard. Probably both.

"I need way more detail than that," Aubrey grins, and Chloe laughs before she starts to explain how Beca ended up sitting at the table with her.

"…and she gave me tickets to her show, I'm taking a couple of the girls I know from here – Katie and Jasmine, I told you about them – and then we just kept talking about everything. Like, music, definitely, but a bunch of others things too, and she was actually really nice to talk to and we were talking for like two hours and I missed half of a lecture because I got distracted by her…"

"Wait, she made you miss a lecture? I don't think I like her anymore," Aubrey interrupts, and Chloe raises her eyebrows.

"No, she was super apologetic, it was totally my fault. Are you not going to comment on the fact that I totally have tickets to see my favourite band that I got for free from the lead singer that I have a ridiculous crush on?"

"You're still on that crush thing, are you?"

"I mean, yeah… She's so small and cute in real life! And I always thought maybe if I met her it'd be weird and the crush would disappear but it wasn't the slightest bit weird and she was super nice and-" Chloe stops abruptly, taking a moment before she looks straight at the camera on her phone. "Is this bad?"

"I mean, if you're never going to talk to her again, maybe a little," Aubrey replies carefully, "but are you ever going to talk to her again? Did she seem interested in anything?"

"I mean, I'm pretty sure she's straight, Aubs."

"Is she still with that dude we saw her with at Disneyland?"

"She mentioned that they'd broken up, actually. Just in passing. It must have been a while ago, I hadn't seen him on her Instagram…" Chloe looks off to the side, seeming to get lost in some other train of thought.

"Chloe?" Aubrey drags her attention back, "see if she tries to contact you around the show, but please don't read into anything too much. She might just be being a nice person."

"I know, I don't think it's anything more. It was just a nice couple of hours. Besides, she lives in America and our lives have nothing in common, nothing would ever work anyway."

* * *

Of course, Katie and Jasmine are – much like Chloe – the type that get to a concert early to try and get as close to the front as possible, and it works: the three girls end up only one row of people away from the barrier below the stage. It's cool, except Chloe feels awkward staring at Beca even though that's totally what you're meant to do at a concert. She hopes.

The first eye contact between them is awkward, because evidently this venue is just small enough that Beca can make out individual faces in the crowd and Chloe isn't quite sure how to react. She swears Beca winks at her the second time, so she grins at her the third time. She doesn't want to mess with her too much while she's on stage, but the wink gave her way too much confidence. Still, when she notices Beca mess up one of the words in the next line she sings, Chloe starts trying her hardest to look away from her at least occasionally.

There's a short break partway through their performance, and because it's a small enough venue that weaving through the crowd isn't impossible, Jasmine goes to get a water while Chloe and Katie wait, still near the front of the crowd.

"So you literally met the lead singer to get these? Did you ask for them?" Katie asks, although not too loudly.

"Yeah, didn't ask though. She offered first," Chloe answers, knowing she's smiling a little too much at the memory, and Katie nods.

"You totally have a thing for her, don't you?"

"Oh, definitely, but it's silly and I'm sure I probably won't even talk to her again," Chloe answers, and Katie shrugs as they move on to other topics.

It's only a couple of minutes later, though, that Chloe's text tone goes off and she lifts up her phone to see she wasn't right about the not talking thing in the slightest.

"She asked me if I wanted to hang out after…" Chloe tells Katie, and it takes a moment before her friend realises who she's talking about and grabs Chloe's shoulders.

"Oh my god, dude, really? Are you going to? What did she say exactly? What are you going to reply?"

"I don't know! I don't want to get my hopes up but she's really nice… Read it," Chloe turns the phone to Katie.

* * *

Beca points out a section of the monitor backstage during the only interval in the show where they actually had time to pause, her band mates listening intently. They were getting on better now that they all knew they were approaching the end of their run, and Beca needed advice, after that little incident where she couldn't help looking at Chloe in the audience, again, and forgot what she was meant to be singing.

"That girl with the red hair… Chloe. She's the one I got tickets for, the girl I met at Starbucks," she explains, going to continue when Dylan interrupts her.

"You like her?"

"No! I'm not- that's not-" Beca responds, instinctively, met with disbelieving looks from both of them, and Tristan when she glanced over to where he was sitting across the room. "I might," she relents.

Beca did not want to think too much in to that statement while she was partway through a show, because she had never considered the possibility of having a crush on a girl before, but clearly something was going on…

"Does she want to see you?" Chris asks, and Beca shrugs, earning yet another pointed stare from the others. "Okay, fine, she said it'd be nice if we could catch up again," Beca relents, "but I don't know how to arrange that while we're performing"

"Text her now? You've got like three minutes before we have to head back out," Chris nudges her over towards Tristan, who's got her phone, and Beca sighs, reluctantly walking over to her brother and holding her hand out for the phone, leaving the others to go back to spending the break in their own ways.

"Ask her back to your hotel," Tristan tells Beca when she takes her phone, but she quickly shakes her head.

"Wrong implication. I just want to hang out with her."

"Sure? Because it seems like you want to have-"

"Tristan!" Beca cuts him off, "I'm not talking about this with you."

It takes her ten seconds too long to work out exactly what she's texting Chloe, but she finally settles on 'Want to hang out backstage after? Side door to the right of the stage if you do', hoping it's casual enough. She sends the message and races back to perform, only a tiny bit late.


	5. Chapter 5: Seven Keys

Chloe decided to try and reply to Beca's text casually, much like Beca had tried to ask casually, deciding on a basic 'Sounds good!' – she wanted to use an emoji, but Katie and Jasmine couldn't even help her work out which one, so she left it – but she's sure Beca wouldn't have seen it, because they were back on stage only seconds after she sent it.

Still, Chloe feels odd for the remainder of the concert, not sure whether to look at Beca given she was the vocalist and that was definitely a normal thing to do, or entirely avoid that in case eye contact happened, because, well…

Beca looked hot performing. Like, really hot. Chloe would admit that, although only to herself, because she was still entirely unsure where she stood with Beca. She thought they were friendly acquaintances, at best. She didn't think she'd ever actually talk to Beca again, and that the brunette had only asked for her number to send her the tickets… and then she texted her, and Chloe wasn't so sure any more.

"Hey! You were really good tonight," Chloe greets Beca as the smaller girl gestures for her to follow her towards a green room of sorts backstage when they meet at the side door a few minutes after the performance had finished, the crowd in the venue starting to thin out.

"Thanks, you only messed me up once," Beca throws in a joke to try and hide her blush in response, quickly coming to regret it.

"I messed you up, hey? Why?" Chloe lets her tone stray almost near flirty, her mind screaming at her to cut it out but her heart jumping at the chance Beca gave her, her uncertainty about their position playing at her mind.

"I don't know," Beca tries to brush it off, shrugging, thankful that they step in to the green room at that moment and the others are still there, with exchanged greetings forcing a change in conversation. She's not totally sure how to introduce Chloe to the others - Starbucks girl? Friend? -, so she just introduces her as 'Chloe' and hopes the redhead doesn't notice the raised eyebrows from her bandmates at the lack of title.

They have a short conversation with the three boys as some other crew mill around, but slowly everyone is leaving, a lot going out to some bar that is apparently nearby. They invite the girls, but they decline, happy to stay talking in the backstage of this random Toronto club, as it becomes increasingly quiet for a Friday night. Katie & Jasmine had hung around for a while, but knowing Chloe was probably going to be with Beca for a lot longer if she could, had decided to head back to the dorm on campus, sending Chloe a text to make sure she was good to get back whenever she wanted to.

"Uber exists, guys. Have a good night, I'll see you later x" she texts back, while Beca is saying something to one of the security.

"It's pretty much just us here now, we can stay until like 2am apparently before security locks everything up for the night. We can go elsewhere if you want, I don't mind, but-" Beca stops, shrugging as she slides back on to the sofa they had commandeered off Tristan earlier.

"Here's good," Chloe reassures her, and Beca nods, before Chloe continues. "What kind of stuff is in here, anyway? Any crazy stuff you or the others ask for in the green room?"

"We're not that famous," Beca laughs lightly, "I literally just make sure there's water and like decent tea in case my throat decides to be stupid. Chris has some weird thing with spare guitar picks, and I think they make sure there's beer... most of these kind of places have way too much alcohol in them anyway."

Chloe gestures over to the fridge, and Beca nods, joining her when she stands and goes to open it to see what's there.

"Geez, this is good stuff," Chloe examines a couple of bottles before closing the fridge again and leaning up against the cupboard beside it.

"You know your alcohol?" Beca asks, half-teasing.

"Well enough. I mean, I'm an Australian university student, alcohol is consumed. I'm not as big on regular drinking as a lot of the others, though. What about you?" She turns the question back, and Beca shrugs.

"I'm not a big drinker. I've never really been super drunk or anything, just mildly tipsy with the guys or whatever. And like, I'm only twenty, so technically not legal..." She trails off.

"Right, I always forget it's 21 in America. I mean, I'm 21 anyway, but it's 18 in Australia," Chloe explains, and Beca goes to say she knows, she's been researching things like that, but quickly stops herself. She knew by this point that Chloe was usually studying at one of the colleges she'd applied for, but she didn't want to get her hopes up - and Beca really didn't know whether she meant hers or Chloe's. She could tell the girl was flirting with her at least slightly, but that she was holding back, too. She wasn't reacting, because she didn't want to tell her to stop, but that in itself was kind of scary, and probably what prompted her next question.

"You want some of the stuff in the fridge? It's all there for us to use if we want, so like..." she trails off.

"Do you?" Chloe responds, and Beca nods. She could use something to calm her down a little, to let her actually do the things she wanted to already. "Is it all good, legally?" Chloe quickly asks, as she leans back down to the fridge and grabs a couple of bottles of vodka pre-mixed drinks. At least, Beca thinks, she's able to recognise what they are. She thinks. They're the colourful crap, and she's pretty sure Tristan told her that was usually vodka-based.

"Yeah, I can drink if it's not in public or whatever and something to do with who buys it, but apparently our venue drinks fall under that," Beca explains, and Chloe nods, only handing the drink over once she's finished. Beca makes a mental note of Chloe's timing and apparent responsibility.

The two move back to the sofa, Beca just watching the way Chloe opens the bottle and leans back in the chair as she takes a sip. There's something very appealing about the action, and Beca- has been caught staring, Chloe glancing over and meeting her eyes. 'Shit,' she curses inwardly, quickly looking away and twisting the top of her own drink, feeling Chloe still watching her.

"Some people manage to make drinking look strangely good," Beca forces herself to say, taking a swig herself as an excuse not to look back at the girl to her right.

"They do," Chloe agrees, and Beca turns back to see her almost smirking. Neither says anything for a few moments as they simply look at each other, Beca's mind swirling itself further and further into a confused mess as Chloe tries to fight her desire to flirt with the girl she's feeling herself fall further and further for the more they talk.

There has to be something there, Chloe thinks. She wouldn't be feeling such a strong connection with Beca if it was entirely one sided, would she? Still, the silence was a little too much even for her, and Beca looked to be getting lost in her thoughts, so Chloe shifted so she was sitting sideways on the chair, facing Beca, and pulled their conversation into much safer territory.

They only have a couple of drinks each, and they really aren't that strong, but it's enough for Beca to feel at least a little bit calmer, and she lets herself gradually move closer to Chloe. She can't tell if Chloe is moving closer to her too, but she swears she must be. Beca loses track of the passage of time as they talk, much like she did earlier in the week, but it has to be quite a while later when their conversation comes to a natural pause. Beca turns to look at Chloe, knowing her eyes reveal more of her feelings than she'd usually allow, but Chloe is looking at her just as intensely. Beca feels her eyes glance down towards Chloe's lips, seeing the other girl do the same.

She's not entirely sure who started it, or who leaned in, but suddenly, their lips meet in a cautious kiss.

"Shit, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-" Chloe whispers, going to pull away from Beca a few moments later, but Beca's hand is suddenly on her cheek, holding her close, and she's not sure she could speak any more if she tried. Beca almost looks like she's going to say something herself, but she changes her mind, leaning in and connecting their lips for the second time. Both of their minds are racing too much for them to collect their thoughts and work out what is actually going on, so instead, they keep kissing. Beca doesn't want to think about what it means, but kissing Chloe feels totally right. So she deepens the kiss. And Chloe knows that she shouldn't be doing something she knows won't end happily, but she is perfectly happy right now, so she parts her lips slightly, testing the waters.

Chloe is usually the more forward in her relationships, so she is the one who shifts to sit across Beca's lap and pull the girl closer as they continue to make out. It's Beca, however, whose hands start to wander, up Chloe's side, and then down her back, and then slightly under the end of her shirt. As Beca's hand touches the bare skin of Chloe's back, even the hyper-rational part of Chloe's mind decides that all of this is an extremely good thing.

Beca's fear catches up with her, though, the second she touches Chloe's bra strap across the middle of her back, and she freezes. Chloe shifts away almost instantly, breaking the kiss and moving off Beca's lap to the couch beside her. Beca misses the contact at every point they were touching and she looks down, fiddling with her own hands as she tries to work out what to say.

"It's okay, Becs. I'm sorry if I went too far," Chloe tells her softly, but Beca quickly shakes her head.

"It's not that," she pauses, still refusing to look at Chloe; until she feels her leg softly bump in to her own and the rush of warmth that flies through her body as a result causes her to meet Chloe's eyes. "I'm fucking terrified because I want to go further but you're a girl and that's not something I've ever done or even considered before."

"You're allowed to be scared, and please don't do anything you're not comfortable with. I'm happy with whatever you want to do, nothing or everything or anything else," Chloe reassures her, and it works, because Beca starts to relax again.

"Why did you kiss me?" Beca feels herself ask more than she consciously chooses to.

"I've wanted to all evening, and I was increasingly getting a vibe that maybe you wanted that too," Chloe pauses for Beca to respond, but the smaller girl just bites her lip and nods slowly, so Chloe continues, "You made me realise I was gay, years ago when I first saw you in a music video. I was so drawn to you it was kind of ridiculous. I've been with a few girls since then but the whole time I've been pissing off my friends by pining after you even though I knew the chance of me ever meeting you was next to nothing. And we live in different countries, so we'll probably never see each other again after this weekend. I wanted you to be rude and difficult to talk to or something if I ever met you, so I'd quit the pining, but turns out you're far from either..." Chloe trails off, wondering if she said too much. Her worries disappear when she meets Beca's eyes again to see a soft smile, as Beca reaches over and takes Chloe's hands in her own.

"I was going to ask if you just want to sleep with me because I'm mildly famous or whatever but I think that's a no," Beca almost jokes, and Chloe shakes her head.

"I happened to discover you that way, but I'd probably prefer if you weren't."

It would be the perfect place for Beca to explain that maybe she won't be in the public eye anymore, and maybe they'll end up living in the same city, and it won't just be this weekend. But what if all the colleges reject her? What if Chloe _wants_ just this one little thing between them, and Beca is just getting ahead of herself?

"I think I was drawn to you when I first saw you at Disney last year, too, I just didn't realise because liking girls wasn't a thing I considered. But... I feel all kinds of nice things around you, and I want to talk to you so much which is more than I can say for even my closest friends, and I did want you to kiss me. So I guess I like you," Beca explains, leaning in to Chloe's side as they shift closer to each other. Neither feels the need to say any more, so they sit against each other in comfortable silence for a few minutes.

"We should probably get out of here soon," Chloe indicates over to the clock on the wall, and Beca nods.

"Do you have anything in particular to do tonight- well, this morning, I guess?" Beca asks.

"Nope."

"Do you want to come hang out at my hotel?" Beca's question turns awkward as she realises the implication, although she's not totally sure it's incorrect...

"Sure," Chloe winks as she answers, and Beca feels herself get flustered as she mumbles something under her breath in response, although she's not entirely clear herself on what she intended to say.

Beca grabs her phone off the nearby table and calls for an Uber so she has an excuse to stop looking at Chloe, quickly grabbing her things and gesturing Chloe to follow her through the maze of hallways to the back entrance. It's only after a few steps that Beca finds her nerve and searches out Chloe's hand, sliding their fingers together. They don't let go until Beca needs both hands to fumble around in her bag for her hotel room key, opening the door when she finds it and gesturing for Chloe to enter in front of her.


	6. Chapter 6: That Weekend

**A/N:** Sorry for the delay again, life got hectic. Haven't proofread all of this, just trying to post it quickly before I'm busy again for a few days!

* * *

Beca's hotel room isn't huge, although it's not tiny either. There's no sofa, only a bed and a small desk with a couple of chairs. Chloe lets herself feel awkward for a moment, standing at the foot of the bed, but she can sense it's making Beca nervous too so she quickly forces a confident smile on her face and turns back to look at the younger girl as she rests her bag on the sideboard opposite the bed and asks if Beca minds someone sitting on her bed.

"'Course not," Beca answers, still a little nervous, but Chloe sees her relax as they take of their shoes and sit at the foot of the bed, Beca shifting herself closer when Chloe sits a little too far away for her liking, earning a smile from the redhead in question.

They start talking again, about all manner of things, but Beca plays with Chloe's hands as they do, seeming to increase in confidence as she rests one hand on her thigh. Chloe never intended this to happen, but she can tell that she's falling head over heels for Beca, even more so with every touch, and she's happy to let Beca go at her own pace. Their conversation slows when Beca's hand finds its way under Chloe's shirt again, Chloe squeezing Beca's other hand in encouragement where it rests on her thigh. She's more than happy to move slowly, to let Beca lead, for nothing more than light touches to even happen - but, god, she wants to touch her.

"Chlo?" Beca whispers, her voice heavy as her fingers pause at the redhead's bra strap again, although this time she hasn't frozen.

"Yeah, Becs?" Chloe answers softly, moving herself impossibly closer to the girl beside her.

"Can I undo.." Beca's half question is awkward, so Chloe lets a shy smile grace her face as she nods, moving her own hand to Beca's knee.

"I'm more than happy to go at your pace and for you to lead, Becs, but I usually don't do that, so I'm holding back a lot, and I'm okay with literally anything you want to do," Chloe tries to explain carefully, without sounding too desperate or anything - Beca was attractive enough to make her lose her mind, which does not happen to Chloe often (ever), and they'd been on the edge of going further for two hours, she was a little desperate.

"Can you lead?" Beca asks her quietly, seeming relieved when Chloe nods. Beca was just characteristically awkward at human interaction, and although all of this was what she wanted, she didn't really know how to progress, so she let Chloe, and she felt all her awkwardness and worry disappear as soon as the redhead's hands started undoing the buttons on her shirt.

* * *

Beca wakes first in the morning, wrapped in Chloe's arms. She's never been one for cuddling, but she doesn't really mind it when it's Chloe. She lets her mind wander as she absentmindedly curls in to the body beside hers, imagining what could happen if everything fell into place - if she got in to the right college, lived in the same city as Chloe, could leave the touring life behind and wake up beside Chloe on at least a semi-regular basis. Spend time with her. Be with her.

Her fantasy is broken by the sound of a phone vibrating against the bedside table, and from this angle she can identify that both of their phones are sitting on her side, but she can't tell which is going off, so she reluctantly shifts out of Chloe's arms towards the edge of the bed.

"Come back," Chloe mumbles, evidently a little more awake than Beca had imagined.

"Your phone's going off," she whispers in return, picking up the offending device.

"Who is it?" Chloe asks, her voice slightly clearer but her eyes still closed.

"Katie. Wondering where you are rather anxiously," Beca answers, quickly glancing down at the chain of messages on the screen.

"Can you reply?" Chloe pleads, as she pushes herself further down under the covers. The sight distracts Beca for a moment, almost forgetting what she's doing until she has an idea.

"Can I send her a picture of you?" Beca asks, and she sees a smirk appear on Chloe's face before the redhead agrees, and adjusts the covers around herself to reveal just enough of her shoulder to make a point.

'She's with me. Refuses to get out of bed -Beca' Beca captions the text, very quickly seeing a reply being typed.

'All good, thanks for the update! Great show by the way Beca, thanks for the tickets :)' Katie replies politely, and Beca goes to switch the phone off until she sees typing again.

'WAIT' the second message is quick, but Beca turns the phone off before the next arrives.

"I think she worked out why you're still here," Beca mumbles when she shifts back under the covers and back towards Chloe, earning a light laugh from the redhead.

"You know I'd probably still be here even if nothing had happened, right?"

"Yeah," Beca answers, letting her mind drift back to where it had been before Katie's messages. Something had happened. She needed to talk to Chloe about it, properly. She needed to call Ashley and freak out that she'd slept with a girl and was definitely not regretting it. She needed to make this more than a one night stand.

"Are you okay with... everything?" Chloe draws Beca out of her thoughts, and Beca pulls herself closer to Chloe in response.

"Yeah. I'm just kind of trying to work out how to communicate that I want more than a one night stand and I think you're gorgeous and so nice to spend time with and-" Beca pauses abruptly, her uncertainty about revealing those applications stopping her in her tracks as the concept of _time_ crosses her mind. "All that crap," she mumbles to finish and Chloe finally opens her eyes to look at the - unpredictably shy, she thinks - girl in front of her.

"I want that too, and you know I'm..." Chloe pauses, trying to avoid the L word, "I like you a whole lot, you're so adorable and-"

"I'm not adorable, I'm cooler than that," Beca interrupts quickly, sounding half-grumpy, and Chloe laughs.

"You're adorable and cool, and I want nothing more than to be with you, and I fully intend to stay right here until one of us has to leave, but-" she pauses again as Beca looks away, taking a deep breath before she continues, "I'm guessing you're leaving Toronto today, or tomorrow or something. I'm leaving this whole continent in January, probably for years if not forever. I know from experience that I can't do distance..." she trails off, Beca feeling her heart break as she wills herself to interrupt, to explain that there's at least a possibility that they wouldn't have to - but she can't say it, the words sticking to her throat as she tries to hold back tears and tries to pretend she isn't.

"I'm here until 5pm tomorrow," is all Beca manages, looking back at Chloe to see her as distraught as Beca is.

"I can be here until then too, if you want."

"Please." Beca surprises herself with how strongly she responds, feeling her face flush as she turns away, suddenly hyper-aware that they're not actually touching at all at the moment.

Beca feels herself gravitate closer to Chloe, as if she's the centre of her world. It's a cheesy thought that she tries to push out of her mind, but much to her disdain, it sticks. She still can't look at the other girl, but in her closer position only an inch from the redhead, she can feel soft fingertips start to lightly dance across her arm.

Beca knows she falls for people too hard and too quickly. It's part of her mildly antisocial nature: when she finds someone that she can more than just tolerate, she's all in. Still, Chloe is particularly quick. It's only been four days since the coffee shop. Sure, they've talked for hours, but does she really know her at all? How can she feel so much for a girl she barely knows?

Except, as Chloe's fingers reach hers and entwine their hands, she realises she does know the girl. She knows that she will have just pushed her hair out of her face so she can look at the back of Beca's head. She knows the expression that will be on her face and the sparkle in her eyes that will make it even more obvious. So, Beca turns her head back to face Chloe.

Everything is as expected. And it's because of this that she shifts closer, placing her hand on Chloe's cheek and kissing her hard as the redhead immediately responds.

They alternate between kisses and conversation, and fingers dancing across bare skin, uninterrupted until a mid-afternoon knock on the hotel room door. Beca curses as she pulls back, pausing when she sees Chloe raise an eyebrow.

"What?" She pushes as she rolls out of the bed, feeling eyes following her and becoming increasingly self-conscious as they do.

"Didn't think you were the swearing type, other than when you're-"

"I definitely am. I just don't in the public eye," Beca responds, cutting Chloe off before she can say anything embarrassing. She's thankful for the free hotel robe as she quickly throws it on and ties it at the front, going to answer the door.

Chloe props her head up, leaning on her elbow, watching as Beca wedges her body between the door and the frame so whoever's there can't see in. She catches bits and pieces of the conversation - she thinks it's one of Beca's bandmates asking her to do something - but zones out on the details and lets her mind wander.

She's very aware that she shouldn't be lying here. She shouldn't have come back to Beca's hotel once she knew where things were going, because she knew she was in too deep for one night. She knew two would make it worse, but she wasn't physically capable of saying no to Beca. Zoning back in to Beca's conversation in the doorway, she hears Beca turn down an offer to hang out with her bandmates and starts to feel a little sick, shifting her gaze back down into the bed as she hears the door close again.

"What's up?" Beca asks, her tone some combination of hesitant and affectionate. Chloe wants to respond, tell the brunette how _shitty_ she feels about how much she likes everything between them, and how selfish she feels… but that's vulnerability, and she knows it won't help either of them. So, she just shakes her head as well as she can lying on her side, and reaches for Beca's hands to entwine with her own as she gently pulls her back in to the bed.

"Who was it?" Chloe asks, trying to sound cheery. Beca clearly isn't fooled, pausing and watching her for a minute before taking a deep breath.

"Just Tristan, wondering what I was up to today. And how long I was with you last night," she tries to sound casual, but she sees Chloe give a tiny, almost-sad smile in response, seeming to forcible neutralise her expression as soon as she realises it's changed.

"What did you say?"

"That I'm getting some rest today and just hung out with you at the venue until like 1"

"Did he believe you?"

"I don't think so."

Chloe wants to ask if Beca's brother potentially knowing she spent last night with her would be a _problem_ between them, wants to ask if her bandmates and family are as Traditional Values as they publicly present themselves (although she already worked out that Beca definitely isn't). But she doesn't, because that conversation is a little too relationship-y for whatever this is.

They both force themselves past the awkwardness eventually, recreating the cocoon of happiness and comfort they had created in the hotel room overnight. They order room service for dinner and eat it side-by-side in the bed, bouncing (at least mildly judgemental) commentary on whatever stupid reality show they've managed to find on the TV off each other. Chloe decides to shower after they eat – a little to clear her head, a little to freshen up before the inevitable – and she's not entirely surprised that she's only just turned on the water when she hears Beca shyly asking if she can join her. She says yes, because the image of shower sex with the brunette, that starts running through her mind, is a little too tempting. Too good.

The image is right – it's good. Like, really good, as is the rest of their evening. And although Chloe knew they'd probably stay up until they were too exhausted for more, she didn't expect the huge increase in confidence that their little shower escapade seemed to give Beca. She wasn't going to complain, especially not when Beca shifted down her body, and she felt lips against her upper thigh, and then – _oh._

"You sure you've never had sex with a girl before?" Chloe mumbles tiredly when they both sink back into the bed, in mutual unspoken understanding that they probably need to actually sleep now.

"I've never had sex with anyone before," Beca answers, her mind still not entirely back to reality and causing her to speak before she can stop herself. As soon as she realises what she's said, she quickly turns away from Chloe and buries her head between the two pillows on the bed. "I wasn't gonna tell you that," she says, her voice muffled by the pillow.

"I'm not going to judge you, Becs. You're just very good for a first timer," Chloe responds, fighting off sleep as Beca slowly turns back and leans her head against Chloe's shoulder again. "I just feel even more guilty for letting things go so far when I knew it'd just be the weekend," she whispers a moment later, not sure if Beca even heard her.

But Beca's ear is just near Chloe's mouth, and she did hear her. And she knows it's the perfect time to try and convince Chloe that something could work between them, long term. To tell her about the applications she posted less than a week ago (she swears it's actually been a month). But by the time she gets the nerve and whispers something along the lines, she's pretty sure Chloe's asleep. And she's right – Chloe doesn't hear her.

Chloe wakes up at 6am. She's less refreshed than she thinks she has ever been after waking up from a sleep. Beca's weight against her side felt comforting and right last night, but now it kind of burns, and Chloe feels the unbearable urge to run.

So she does.

It's slow for _running_ – Beca is a heavy sleeper, she can tell, but she still takes her time slowly shifting the girl off her so she can slide out of the bed, go and find her clothes and quietly put them on in the bathroom. She considers leaving without a trace, but she feels like maybe that's worse than staying, so she leaves a note. It's brief, but more heartfelt than she originally intended. She doesn't know how to finish it, so she just writes and goes with whatever comes and out and – she really needs to leave.

She puts the note on the pillow where her head had been only minutes earlier, taking one last look at Beca's face as she sleeps. It's very peaceful. She knows it wouldn't be at all later, if she stayed.

The uber she calls pulls up in front of the hotel as Chloe steps out of the elevator, and she thanks the luxuries of being in a city as large as Toronto as she is able to immediately slide into it and give the address of her uni dorm. Maybe she can get a decent sleep back there.


	7. Chapter 7: Break

It's almost 7am by the time Chloe gets back to her dorm, because for god knows what reason, traffic was really bad. Early on a Sunday morning. She tries to focus on the light-hearted confusion she could find in that as she trudges to the entrance of her building, but her mind keeps jumping back to the image of Beca lying there, unaware of her two-night-stand's departure.

Chloe expects to find her single room empty when she returns – she had locked it, after all – so she opens the door rather abruptly, scowling slightly and looking at the ground. She's half a step into her room when she zones back in to reality and hears noise and sees someone's legs stretched out across the ground, and she looks up, and there sit her four closest friends from the dorm.

"…what are you guys doing in here?" Chloe asks, trying to sound her usual bright self. She knows she isn't exactly succeeding even before she notices Jasmine rolling her eyes.

"We thought you'd either need a celebration or comfort when you got back so at least one of us has been here in shifts since I got that text. Now, sit, I can tell it's the latter. Chocolate, ice cream, or both?" Katie explains, before leaning around to the minifridge in the corner of the room and pulling out a bunch of junk food.

Chloe's not quite sure what to say, so she just shrugs and lets the door fall shut behind her, doing as Katie instructed and taking a seat on the floor near them, back leant against her bed. She tilts her head back and rubs a hand over her forehead for a minute, sighing softly.

"Both," she finally answers, a couple of minutes later, and Jasmine starts pulling chocolate out of a bag that must have been sitting beside her while Lauren and Katie serve up the ice cream, Natalie busying herself with laying out everything else they've apparently got for this little invasion of Chloe's room. To be honest, she's feeling at least a tiny bit brighter already just looking at all the effort and care they've put in to this. Chloe wanted to just mope in her room all day when she got back, but honestly, she's very aware this might be harder – but it'll be better for her.

"So," Jasmine starts, once the snacks have been distributed and everyone is nibbling at bits and pieces while Chloe eats triple chocolate fudge ice cream out of the tub. "What happened, Chloe? Katie & I filled the others in on what we know."

"Well, I…" Chloe starts, trailing off, unsure what to say. She takes a deep breath and tries again, stabbing her spoon into the ice cream near the edge so it doesn't totally destroy it.  
"We were hanging out backstage with her band and whatever, and they all left, but we stayed, and I've had a thing for her for ages so I was flirting a little bit, she was flirting back… and I kissed her, and she admitted she had a thing for me too but she was kind of freaking herself out because she didn't kinda know she was into girls, but then she invited me back to her hotel and…" she trails off again.

"You were definitely not wearing anything in her bed in that photo, hey?" Katie prompts, and Chloe nods.

"It didn't feel like a one-night stand. It was… too affectionate. And it was two nights anyway, and it wasn't just sex, we talked about fucking everything and it all felt right but I shot down the idea of anything more permanent between us before she could raise it because I knew she was going to but I can't do long distance and I know that hurt her and-" Chloe stops to try and breathe, knowing she's about to start crying, but it just makes it worse. "-I panicked this morning and left, but I left a note, and I wrote something stupid…"

* * *

Beca's a little cool when she wakes up, but she puts it down to the fact that she's literally in Canada and it's been snowing on and off all week, and it's still early, so it probably is freezing outside right now. She's also very much naked, which she's sure isn't helping, but she doesn't mind that in the slightest. Slowly waking her mind and her body, she stretches out across the bed slightly, loosening her muscles that are a little sore from her escapades last night with-

Beca freezes in place, eyes still closed.

She can't move any more, can't open her eyes, because it might confirm what she's suddenly terrified of but unable to even think about.

Has she- is Chloe gone?

No, she can't be. She's probably in the bathroom.

Beca cracks open one eye, seeing the bathroom door is slightly ajar where it wasn't last night, and she's relieved.

She opens her eyes fully, shifting to face where Chloe had been, and her heart sinks. There's a note on the pillow, and the light in the bathroom is definitely off.

Beca wants to hope that the note says Chloe has just disappeared for a few minutes to do something, but she already feels like she's going to be sick. She knows it isn't that. Reluctantly, she turns the note over, taking a moment to examine the almost calligraphic handwriting that is so very Chloe. Then, finally, she starts to process the words in front of her.

' _Beca-  
I left about 6am. I'm sorry, but it will be easier than if I'd stayed. I don't regret any of this, just that I let it happen when I knew it'd be no more than this weekend and neither of us wanted that. Please don't think I didn't want to stay. I did. You're wonderful, so easy to lose track of time with, so beautiful. I honestly think I love you'_

The note ends rather abruptly, and Beca's heart manages to swell in happiness and then immediately smash into a million pieces.

She doesn't know how she ended up here. She'd never even considered girl crushes, and then Chloe came along and rapidly went from freaking her out to making her so comfortable that _Beca_ , as emotionally and socially stunted as she was, was willingly telling her everything while cuddling into her side, and leading her into bed and, hell, Beca went down on her unprompted even surprising herself and then _really_ enjoyed it. There was now not a single doubt in her mind that she was into girls.

And Chloe, well… she's pretty sure she loves Chloe, too. Of course, the perfect person had to be someone that currently lives on another continent to Beca when she's not on exchange. Someone who's going to disappear back to Sydney in a few short months and maybe they'll never see each other again.

Except it's only _currently_ , and Beca winces when she remembers her quiet confession of her future plans to Chloe last night, too little and too late. She could've stopped this happening. She could've just come out and told Chloe everything and maybe Chloe would've been happy to do long distance just for a little while, until Beca got to Sydney. If she did. Of course, Chloe would've been entirely convinced she would, she was that kind of person.

But Beca didn't tell her, and now she's cold in a hotel room in Canada trying not to cry as she feels her heart and her soul crumble into pieces.

She has to play another show in two days.

She's definitely going to have to fight the others to take the sappier love songs off their setlist.

* * *

Beca tries very hard to forget anything with Chloe ever happened, but every time she feels close, there's something to remind her. Ashley tries to comfort her, but Ashley's still in LA and Beca is moving around the east coast, and it's harder from a distance. Her brother, on the few stops in their tour where he decides to be present despite no longer being in the band, tries to ask questions but gives up when she won't answer, instead trying to turn her sour mood around with food gifts. Beca's not a comfort eater, she's a long-term moper, so she mostly just grumbles a half-hearted thanks. However, one day, his gift during a soundcheck is a starbucks pumpkin spice latte, which she'd usually enjoy but it's _starbucks_ and that's where they met and-

"Starbucks is crap," she tells him, abruptly turning and walking out of the room to put it somewhere out of her sight. She'd be nicer about someone giving her things if it wasn't her brother, sure, but she's kind of glad it is him and she can take some of her anger out on him in a shitty sisterly way. She just hopes she'll feel better in a couple of weeks. And that there will be absolutely no visible redheads in any of the crowds she's performing to.

She doesn't feel better, even having seen roughly no redheads, or at least none with hair as vibrant as Chloe's. It's late November, now, more than a month since she was in Toronto, and she's back in LA, spending way too much time at Ashley's place as her mind keeps running through everything that happened over and over, identifying hundreds of points where she could have told Chloe she might be moving to Australia. At least, if she had, she'd know whether Chloe would've changed her mind or not. She wouldn't be uncertain. She might've moved on.

Beca stopped making angry mashups on her laptop around the time that Seven Keys became an actual thing. It's not that she never wanted to keep making them, just that she was busy or distracted pretty much all the time. After one too many sleepless nights trying to make her brain shut the hell up about Chloe already, she found herself back at her laptop, mixing software open and scrolling through her music library. She scrolls for twenty minutes before deciding that actually, nothing is jumping out at her. She can't even angry-mix. Great.

Her method of drawing random shapes on the notepad beside her laptop almost works, until suddenly, there's words flowing musically from her mind onto the page in a way she hasn't been able to make them for years. Subconsciously, she knows it probably isn't productive to do this, but before she can stop herself she's got two verses and a chorus and a melody starting to take shape in her mind.

She thought that writing a song about Chloe would make her feel worse, but honestly, it's kind of cleared her mind a little. She's more pissed that she'll never get to let anyone else hear it than anything else, because she's a little proud of it. Even if it's sappy as anything and too honest and has given her a potentially misguided but now very cemented plan to try and find Chloe again in Australia if she ends up there. Because at least it's something.

"Hey, what are you singing?" Chris asks, as the band and a couple of others are sitting in a green room after a show in Texas a couple of weeks later. Beca hadn't noticed she'd been quietly mumble-singing that little song she wrote until he commented.

"Uhhhh, nothing, just something I half-remember from when I was a kid?" she tries, her tone rising as she feels everyone watching her.

"You sure it's not something no one else but you has heard before?" Dylan pushes and Beca shakes her head, hiding her face in her hands.

"I maybe wrote something about someone and I haven't told anyone except Ashley about that someone and I shouldn't but it's a really good song," she mumbles quickly.

"Chloe from Toronto?" Chris asks, his tone cautious and much closer than Beca expected it to be. She tries to ignore the shooting pain in her chest as she forces herself to look back up, seeing the two guys have shifted closer to her.

"Yeah," Beca replies, after a moment.

"Let us hear the song. I know you've recorded it if you've got a melody and everything. We won't ask anything else?" Dylan bargains, and part of her wants to say no, but she fucking loves how it turned out, musically. So, reluctantly, she agrees.

* * *

Chloe is _fine_. The fact that she's not told Aubrey anything about that one weekend is totally not a warning sign and neither is her increasing reluctance to talk to Aubrey at all. She knows she'd get it out of her, and then what if she told Amy? Amy would tell everyone, she can't keep her mouth shut. And then it might get to the media, and cause problems for- that person- and Chloe doesn't want to do that.

And it's not that she can't even think her name without feeling nauseous, it's just that she knows thinking about her won't help her move on, so she won't. Self care, and all.

She tells herself the random girl she's hitting on in a bar on a night out with Jasmine and Lauren is self-care, too – getting back in the game. Lauren apparently has other ideas.

"Hey, Chloe, I need help with this thing over here," she says, louder than usual (and definitely a little tipsy), grabbing Chloe's arm and trying to pull her sideways off the bar stool.

"Um, kind of talking to someone, ask Jasmine maybe?" Chloe answers, trying to push her off and sending an apologetic to smile the girl – she thinks her name was Tina or something like that – across from her.

"Nope, has to be you," Lauren responds, more firmly tugging on Chloe's arm. She shrugs in confusion at the girl beside her and lets Lauren pull her away, not willing to put in the effort to fight her.

"What the fuck was that?" she asks, when Lauren has pulled her out of the bar into the cold night air and finally let go of her arm.

"Sleeping with someone who looks vaguely like Beca isn't going to make you stop thinking about her, Chlo," Lauren's tone is suddenly softer, and Chloe goes into panic mode a little.

"She didn't look anything li-"

"Yes she did. At least if you're looking for a rebound chick, make sure she's blonde and knows you're pining over someone else?" Lauren sighs. Chloe doesn't answer, biting her lip and looking down at the ground as she feels her eyes start to water.

"C'mere," Lauren tells her, stepping beside Chloe and pulling her into a hug as she tries to sniffle away her tears. "You just need more time. And you need to talk to Aubrey."

She knows Lauren is right, so she lets her walk her home, and as soon as she's alone in her room, Chloe starts writing a very long message to her best friend.

* * *

 **A/N:** mildly unrelated to the fic, but anyway: I've pieced together this plot from various sources but I got the particular exchange destination of Canada instead of just having it be somewhere in the US because I've been aiming for a Canadian uni exchange myself, and I was formally nominated for my first preference uni in Canada this morning. Still have to apply to said Canadian university and get an acceptance for them, but hey, I'm a step closer to going to Canada myself! This may be a slightly earlier than anticipated Chapter 7 celebratory update. Even if said Chapter was a _little_ angsty.


	8. Chapter 8: Talk

**A/N:** Yeah, month-long delay again. Life is... a little busy. Getting closer to the end with this chapter, though!

 **A/N 2:** So somehow when I first posted this it went on the wrong story despite me being 100% certain I put it on this one... okay ffnet. You do you.

* * *

Predictably, Aubrey was not happy, but Chloe is mildly surprised that she's angrier at Chloe than Beca.

"I know I'm your best friend, Chloe, but absolutely everything that happened was under your control. You knew how it'd turn out. And you could've tried harder to work something out with her, and now she probably never wants to hear from you again. And I wouldn't blame her…" Aubrey trails off, on one of their again-regular Skype calls, and Chloe sighs.

"You know how I'm going to be in New York for New Years Eve just before I come home?" She asks, and Aubrey looks mildly confused at the change of subject.

"Yeah?"

"The big concert they do in Times Square or whatever, she's- the band is performing. I'm not gonna go, I'm not gonna contact her, but I…" Chloe takes a deep breath, "I want to find a way to open the door for her to contact me."

"Did you guys add each other on Facebook? Could you indicate going to an event in New York around then or something?"

"No Facebook. We only exchanged numbers, and she only has my Canadian number too so when I'm in New York is kind of the last time she has any way to contact me… Other than Twitter, I guess, but I don't know if she knows mine."

"Tweet about trying to find things to do in New York on New Years, because I know you're impulse-travelling so you'll be looking for stuff anyway. And hope for the best?"

"I guess so," Chloe answers, not entirely convinced there's any point. But, honestly, she _does_ need suggestions for what to do when she's in New York. But hey, it's not even Christmas yet, so she's got time.

* * *

Chris liked Beca's song. Dylan liked Beca's song. Beca liked her song, and was almost annoyed that they were soon-to-be out of contract and it'd probably never be recorded. Almost – because it's not like she could let it be released, anyway. Chloe would hear it, and she'd know.

Her bandmates had promised not to ask questions but, in the end, Beca did explain at least vaguely what had happened with the redheaded and how Beca had felt so much for her but been too scared to push for anything more.

After that, they did finish and record the song at Chris' insistence (and, Beca thinks, probably a little pushing from Tristan in the background), because they still had access to a proper studio. And maybe, Beca thought, if she ever ran in to Chloe again – if she did get to Sydney – someone outside her band would hear it.

Honestly, she really doubted it, though. Because it was almost Christmas, and she still hadn't heard back from any of the colleges in Australia she'd applied for.

* * *

New York was nice in the snow. Chloe had been here once before, years ago on a business trip with her Dad, but that was in summer and it was just a little bit uncomfortable. Now, a couple of days after a wonderful Christmas spent with both Lauren and Katie's families, she was in a cab from the airport to her hotel watching as the slightest dusting of snow fell. Four months in Canada had given her a greater appreciation of how annoying snow can be, but this wasn't it.

Still, Chloe wasn't entirely sure what she was going to do in New York for the next eight days, as Aubrey had pointed out two weeks ago, and she was still at least 50% heartbroken (again, by Aubrey's calculations) so being alone without anything to do wasn't ideal. All her Canadian travels had been with friends she met at the University, but she was now solo, because none of her vague connections to friends-of-friends in upstate New York or elsewhere on the East Coast had worked out when she was booking this. She was okay with spontaneity, sure - it was just usually with friends. And she usually wasn't dealing with something like Beca.

But that's okay. She's Chloe Beale. She'll make this work.

And, yeah, she does what Aubrey suggests, and she throws a tweet or two up asking for suggestions, vaguely hoping that someone in particular will, by some magical luck, see her tweet.

And even if she doesn't – she's got a fair few followers from her many fandom days, so she gets some decent suggestions and starts to have a wonderful time exploring New York.

* * *

Beca is trawling through Twitter sitting in a hotel in New York post-Christmas, trying to avoid seeing posts from a certain redhead who was clearly having fun in the city – but of course, not trying quite hard enough to actually unfollow her – when her phone rings and she's surprised to see the caller ID is her mother. They talk every few days, sure, but usually they schedule it.

"Hi Mom," she answers the phone.

"Beca! I just got the mail from your place, liked you asked me to, and there's one I thought you might be interested in… I haven't opened it, promise, thought I'd call you first-"

"What is it?" Beca cuts her off carefully, her pulse starting to race. Could it be…?

"It's from the University of Sydney"

"Open it. Please?"

"Of course! It's just over on the bench, give me a second, I'll put you on speaker so I can open it, it's only me home anyway," her mother explains and Beca feels herself nod, before realising that's kind of silly.

"Okay," she says, partly to make up for the useless nodding and partly to break the near-silence as the letter is opened.

"Beca! You got in!"

Beca's not quite sure how to react, so she has to ask her Mom to repeat herself a couple of times, and then to read the whole letter to her, and then it finally starts to sink in: she got into the university. Her ideal preference, even before she met Chloe, but now, the university where the girl she was hopelessly in love with studied, too.

She wishes she could tell Chloe. She wishes Chloe had been aware of the waiting game she's been playing for this news for the past couple of months because she would've been so supportive and excited for her, and it's not that her other friends and bandmates aren't excited when she does tell them – but they aren't Chloe.

She goes back to Twitter almost without thinking, but she just- well, she's just not sure what else to do with this news. Not that she's going to tweet it, of course – the announcement that Seven Keys' performance on New Years Eve is their last hasn't been made yet, and their manager and publicist haven't quite decided when it will be yet, because technically their contract doesn't end for another few weeks, or something. Beca's not entirely sure what's happening, she just knows they have good people that will sort everything out.

So, she just scrolls a little further, before going back to the top of her timeline to load the new tweets. She can feel her heart stutter a little at the first.

* * *

" _Still trying to work out what to do on New Years Eve, before the Times Square stuff starts – any suggestions, Twitter?_ " Chloe hits send, throwing her phone over on to the bed after she does, because she's not expecting an immediate reply.

She opens her laptop to check on a few things – she really needed to choose seats for her flights home in a few days and all that – but she'd left her browser on Twitter, and it indicates she has a notification, so she clicks it, because she really can't stand leaving unread notifications. It might be a trait Aubrey had inflicted on her, but they just look… messy.

It feels like her heart skips a beat when she reads it.

Beca Mitchell liked her tweet. She'd liked it within seconds of Chloe posting it. Why did she like it? What did this mean? Why this after no contact since October?

Her text tone goes off not long later, and Chloe leaps from the small desk back over to the hotel bed to grab it, embracing the sudden intense return of her feelings for Beca and her hopefulness that maybe – she's not sure what, really – maybe, somehow, they can be together again. For longer. Possibly? Or they could just be in contact even slightly, so the girl is in her life somehow?

God, she hopes it's actually Beca.

" _Hi Chloe. I'm sorry for the text out of the blue. I've wanted to contact you but I thought you'd prefer if I didn't, so I haven't, but I saw your tweet, and… I'm in New York too, we're performing in Times Square on NYE but I'm free until 9:30 and I really need to talk to you about something. I wouldn't do this if it wasn't important. Is there any chance you'd be okay with meeting somewhere? Just to talk?"_ the text reads, and Chloe immediately copies it to send to Aubrey to ask for advice, even though she knows the timing is bad and Aubrey will definitely be asleep right now.

Her first instinct is to reply 'of course that's fine' and start planning, but she needs someone less emotionally attached to the situation to tell her she isn't being stupid.

" _Talk to her! Remember the last time you were so pissed you had the opportunity to talk to her and didn't? Don't do that again. Go get your girl!"_ Aubrey's reply is surprisingly quick and enthusiastic, but when Chloe questions her, Aubrey just tells her it was a text worth properly waking herself up to reply to. And she wants Chloe to stop quietly moping about Beca everywhere.

" _Okay, we can meet somewhere and talk. When and where?"_ Chloe replies, and Beca's response is unashamedly quick, and it makes Chloe realise that Beca is physically somewhere, right now, talking to her. Wanting to meet up with her. And it makes her feel kind of warm, even though she's a little scared.

* * *

"Guys! Dylan! Chris! Tristan!" Beca calls out, rushing in to the room where she knows they're all hanging at the moment while she was disappearing off to her room moping.

"Hey, future uni student!" Tristan greets her in reply and she can't help the small grin on her face, because she's still processing that alongside the whole Chloe thing, but it's definitely a complete positive.

"Oh, yeah, that's a thing," Beca suddenly calms her tone down, realising she didn't exactly want to go around getting excited about talking to Chloe, considering she's still pretending she just _kind of maybe liked_ the redhead. She definitely wasn't now very aware of her intense gayness or mildly in love with her or anything like that. Not at all.

"What were you going to say?" Tristan pushes, and Beca looks towards the ground as she feels a blush rising on her cheeks.

"Um, nothing important," she tries to brush it off, but she can feel the force of the sceptical looks from the others. "Okay, fine. Chloe posted something on Twitter about wanting something to do on New Years' Eve, so I texted her, and we're going to meet at her hotel and talk," she explains quickly.

"You do remember we're performing, yeah?" Chris teases.

"Yeah, dude, but we don't need to be there until 9:30. I'm meeting her at 6:30".

"Why are you meeting her?"

"Because she's at the university I got in to. And I… at least want to warn her I'll be around, I guess?" Beca mumbles.

"That all?"

"No. You know I spent an hour and a half talking to her in starbucks the first time I met her? I never have that much to say to someone. And we talked for hours after that show. I can't not have some kind of relationship with her…"

"You got it bad, Beca," Tristan comments, and Beca just shakes her head and blushes.

"Hey, you could plan a proper date for that night to ask her out on, you know? In case her response to your move is what you want it to be?" Dylan suggests, and Beca pauses to consider for a moment.

"I guess I could…"

Beca's plans do fall into place quite quickly with Dylan's help (she didn't listen to Chris – he had a _terrible_ record with girls), although as she walks towards the address of the hotel that Chloe is staying at, part of her still wants to cancel everything because all of this is terrifying, and what if she hates it? What if she doesn't want anything to do with Beca romantically anymore? Chris & Dylan had promised Beca that if things were going to stay platonic between them they'd be fine to hang out with them to be a buffer against any awkwardness, but still… Beca wasn't a fan of just not turning up to restaurant reservations. She was mildly antisocial, sure, but she wasn't _rude_.

As Beca turns into the right street she shoves her hands deep in her pockets and shakes her head to herself, trying to psych herself up to see the redhead again, quietly cursing the less than ideal icy and lightly snowing weather that just had to hit tonight.


	9. Chapter 9: New York New Year

Beca notices Chloe the minute the redhead steps out of the front door of her hotel, even though she's still half a block away. Instinctively, she increases her speed, trying to ignore the nausea-inducing swarm of butterflies making themselves known in her stomach as she anticipates being face-to-face again.

She's still a building away when Chloe turns and their eyes meet, and she feels her step falter as her heart skips a beat, unable to move her gaze. She's glad this street is only mildly busy, because she's not entirely able to focus on avoiding the many business-suited people walking the other way, now.

Chloe doesn't look away either, and what feels like many minutes later – although it's only twenty seconds – Beca stops, two feet in front of Chloe. The older girl's guarded, cautious expression is extremely unfamiliar to Beca and it almost scares her. She should be closer, but she can't move any more. She knows she needs to start a conversation since she initiated this whole thing, but she feels like she's forgotten how to speak, and there's no way she could launch straight in to anything serious.

"You'll need a beanie, Chlo. You're far from immune to icy weather," Beca breaks the silence between them after two minutes of watching the light snowflakes collect on her hair, shaking her head at the redhead, a small smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

"I have one in my pocket, they just always make my head look weird," Chloe replies with half a shrug, her expression softening slightly, although still awkward. She reluctantly reaches into her pocket when Beca removes her hands from her pockets and beckons for the item, handing a dark grey beanie to her... friend? She's not sure at this point.

"I'm not exactly a beanie expert, as a native Californian, but..." Beca says, in a low tone, as she pushes up on her toes to arrange the beanie on Chloe's head. "There. You won't freeze that super smart brain of yours now." She regrets her mildly cheesy comment almost immediately, glad that she can at least brush off her red cheeks as a reaction to the cold if Chloe pushes it. She doesn't, however, instead just nodding awkwardly and letting the pair fall back in to silence - highly uncharacteristic for Chloe, Beca knows very well. Expected, given the circumstances. Beca idly wonders if Chloe has entirely changed her mind about being with her _at all_ , something she hadn't actually considered before this point, but forces it out of her mind for fear of making her want to back out.

"I, um," Beca starts softly, pausing to take a deep breath, "I need to tell you about something."

Chloe doesn't reply immediately, taking a moment to process Beca's statement before responding a quiet, hesitant, "yeah?"

Chloe expects a response from Beca. Instead, the girl reaches in to her bag and pulls out a folded piece of paper, carefully unfolding it before handing it over to Chloe.

It took her a minute. Why was Beca handing her a piece of paper? And then... why does Beca have a letter with the University of Sydney letterhead? Chloe's not seen their letter format for some time, but it's familiar, given how many letters were involved in her exchange application process.

"I submitted applications to five colleges in Australia," Beca starts cautiously, as Chloe tries to speed-read the paper in her hand, "the day before I met you in Toronto. I didn't say anything because I wasn't convinced I'd get in, and I didn't know if it'd be relevant or anything, until after you were asleep on the last night, but-"

"Congratulations! I'm so proud of you!" Chloe cuts off Beca's cautious rambling once she realises the letter she is holding is a university acceptance letter, hesitating slightly before pulling Beca into a hug, which she awkwardly accepts for ten seconds before pulling back, kicking herself internally for moving back to her awkwardly large distance away when all she wants to be is in Chloe's space.

"Thanks. I like the whole band thing, but-" she takes a deep breath, "not forever. And college in America was kind of... I don't know. Restrictive. I did a lot of research and decided on Australia like, eight months ago-" Beca pauses for a moment, her eyes darting between Chloe's as she tries to calm herself down. Chloe, knowing she hasn't finished, just gives a small smile that she hopes is encouraging and doesn't betray how much her mind is racing with possibilities.

"-before I met you," Beca continues, "but now I have, you're one of the reasons I'm glad I was accepted. And I entirely understood what you said last time about distance, and I understand if you just want to keep everything platonic. We can just hang out tonight with other people or go our separate ways or something and... yeah. But," she hesitates, until glancing up at Chloe from where her eyes had fallen to the floor and seeing the redhead biting her lip to keep from smiling, "I am going to be living in the same city as you. And I don't know how serious your note was, and I know everything was quick, but I… I can't stop thinking about you and I can't stop missing you. I want to be with you. I think I love you too. Or, well, not too, just-"

"I still love you, Becs," Chloe replies softly, stepping closer and taking her hands. "I messed up. I shouldn't have shot down the possibility of something more between us even if it was going to be long distance, and I should've contacted you once I realised that, but I thought it'd be better to just try and get over you. That did not work."

"Does that mean that maybe there's a chance I could take you on a proper first date, like… now?" Beca asks, clearly nervous, and Chloe can't help but giggle at how cute Beca is being (and, maybe, how happy she is that Beca just asked her out).

"I'd like that," Chloe responds, and Beca can't help the wide grin that spreads across her face.

"I made dinner reservations for 7pm at a place not far from here, would you like to join me?" Beca asks, and Chloe nods, keeping one hand entwined in Beca's as they turn and start walking down the street.

* * *

The best descriptor Chloe could think of for the restaurant Beca has picked is a hybrid Modern Chinese-hipster café, but it's nice, and it weirdly fits the stereotype she has of Californians. It was only a few minutes' walk, but the nervous energy radiating off the girl beside Chloe as they walked and small talked about the snow and their respective Christmases was starting to make her feel uneasy. Chloe could feel the awkwardness, too, but social awkwardness wasn't something that Chloe would usually let sit. She was more the "smash it to pieces by being too familiar" type, but somehow that felt too forward.

Too forward with the girl she'd had a two-night stand with and pined over for months and then reconnected with. Okay.

They sat down, picking up the menus placed in front of them, but Chloe kept her eyes trained on Beca, watching as her fingers nervously fiddled with the corner of the thick paper, bending it back and forth. Fuck it. She liked how they talked those months ago. Not this.

"So, you know how I told you about Fat Amy, my friend back in Sydney? God, I can't wait for you to meet her. Anyway, you'll never believe the message I got from her the other day-" Chloe starts, glancing away from Beca for only a moment to let her react to her forceful move back to regular conversation without eyes on her. Praying she's respond.

Thankfully, for Chloe, she does, and soon Beca is gasping in surprise at the antics Chloe describes, before flowing into her own story about something Tristan's kid did the other day when they were all back at her parent's house for Christmas.

"Hey, aren't you performing tonight?" Chloe asks Beca, after they've finished their meals, still comfortably talking, their feet resting gently against each other under the table because the table is just a little too large to make hand-holding anything other than awkward.

"Yeah, we're on the 10:15pm slot at Times Square. It's the second-last thing we're doing as a band," Beca answers, shrugging. "It's weird."

"Second-last? What's the last?" Chloe pushes her, and Beca pauses for a moment, starting to mildly panic. Does she mention it?

"Can't tell you that," she responds, instead, playing up the wink she gives, and Chloe laughs.

"Sure sure. So, do you have to get there soon, or anything?"

"We soundchecked earlier today, but I probably have to be there in like… half an hour, forty minutes, I guess…" Beca trails off, trying to psych herself up. "Do you have any plans for the rest of the night?"

"Nope," Chloe answers simply, a small smile playing at the corners of her mouth, and Beca knows what it means enough that she can't help but shyly smile herself. Still, she asks the question.

"Do you want to keep hanging out? I totally get if you don't want to just hang around with the band and production people with me, but if you don't mind… and I was thinking I might watch the rest of the concert after we're on?"

"Sounds fun. I'm in. And I don't mind hanging around with all your people, as long as you're there," Chloe answers, and Beca blushes at the compliment before steering the conversation back to slightly lighter territory until they have to leave.

Chloe tries to fight Beca's attempt to pay for both their meals, of course, but Beca pleads just long enough (and throws in enough jokes about their college-student-v-b-list-celebrity budgets) to win out. She wants to do this whole thing properly. As properly as they can given the situation, anyway.

When Beca reaches the area cordoned off to the side of Times Square, up whichever street this was – so sue her, she's not from New York and she's barely spent any time here – and flashes her ID at the security, Chloe's hand not leaving hers, she's entirely unsurprised that Chris and Dylan quickly locate and start teasing her. Of course, Chloe grins, her own eyes turning playful, and Beca just shakes her head and moves to hide behind the redhead, as if defending herself from the guys.

Beca would almost envy Chloe's ability to fall into easy conversation with not only her bandmates, but the other artists and production crew and presenters and everyone else spending their New Years Eves in this faux-backstage setup, if not for the fact that it makes her own time there so much more enjoyable. As very well established, Beca isn't one for publicity. She has fans, sure, she interacts with them online, and she does interviews, and she performs in front of people, but the whole thing always makes her uneasy, and live TV is the worst. She knows this certainly isn't the high point of the night for TV ratings, but this is simulcast live on a lot of channels. She should be nervous.

But somehow, it isn't quite so bad this time. It scares her a little, how much Chloe puts her at ease.

"So you decided about that song yet?" Dylan asks, as their time approaches, Beca's attempt to make him shut up by kicking him in the shin unfortunately not arriving in time.

"Uh, I don't know," Beca quickly brushes it off, hoping Chloe doesn't pick up their conversation.

"What song?" Chloe asks, and Beca curses internally. She's still not sure if she's ready to even reveal that.

"Uh, just a song one of Dylan's friends recorded, can't decide if I like it," she quickly makes up a lie, refusing to look at the looks she knows she's getting from everyone except Chloe. Thankfully, Chloe seems to buy it, and any further discussion is cut off by their manager asking them to finish getting ready because they're on next.

"Good luck," Chloe tells Beca, seeming to hesitate about something, before leaning in and pressing a kiss to her cheek. Beca feels herself blush profusely as she thanks Chloe, reluctantly stepping away from the redhead, who makes her own movements to somewhere she can see the stage.

Somehow, Beca feels like this might be one of her better performances.


	10. Chapter 10: Chloe - Finale

It's a different feeling watching Beca than it was last time. Last time she felt a little awkward, like she was staring up at an idol who was just a bit outside her world, until she stepped backstage. Chloe felt calmer this time, less focussed on the spectacle of it all and more on Beca's voice. It was no accident that Beca was the vocalist for a band successful enough to be performing Times Square on New Years Eve. She could sing damn well. Chloe let herself get washed away in the music, leaning against the edge of the backstage area with a few of Seven Keys' other entourage as she watched.

Beca is pulled into a conversation with Dylan and their manager as she returns backstage after the performance, but she takes Chloe's hand anyway and gently tugs it, requesting she follow her. Chloe's not entirely sure what they're talking about, choosing to direct her attention elsewhere as it seems to be something technical, but it still feels nice that Beca went to her anyway.

"Hey Chloe," Dylan draws her attention to their conversation some moments later, and she tilts her head in acknowledgement. "Has Beca told you abou-"

"Shut it," Beca snaps, cutting him off, and Chloe feels the tension in the girl's hand, still holding hers. "That is my thing, it is personal to me, and I will choose what happens with it, and you've agreed to that literally in writing. I'm starting to fucking regret telling anyone-" Beca cuts herself off with a grumble, shaking her head as if disappointed. Chloe's not entirely sure what to think of the interaction, until Beca turns to face her and her demeanour immediately changes.

"Sorry Chlo, he's just pushing me about something we're not sure on before the band's officially done. Anyway, d'you want to head back out and watch the show or something?" She asks, all the harshness gone from her voice, and Chloe just gives her a small smile and nods.

"You really don't need to tell me your private stuff about the band anyway," Chloe reassures, as they walk back out past the security, Dylan having awkwardly apologised and walked off to spend time with some of his friends who'd also come to New York for the night.

"I promise it's nothing bad, but you do kind of need to know about this one. Before I decide what's happening..." Beca explains, looking down as her voice turns cautious.

"You've not changed your minds about finishing up just now, have you?"

"Oh god no. That's certain. It's just-" Beca stops, shaking her head. "I'm terrified to tell you. Can you give me an hour or something?" She asks, her tone turning pleading, and Chloe pulls them to a stop at the edge of the path and drops Beca's hand.

Beca panics for a moment until Chloe instead puts one arm around her shoulders and pulls her closer.

"Of course, baby. Whenever you're ready," she replies, Beca feeling herself blush at the pet name.

"Thank you," She whispers in response, pushing up on her toes slightly to place a light kiss on the redhead's cheek.

Chloe's arm shifts to her waist as they walk further back into Times Square, not wanting to be too close to the front this time. The crowd is as diverse as can be in age and every other demographic, Beca quietly hoping that the spot they pick amongst an older section just as the next act starts means no one will recognise her.

She's wrong, of course; she had literally just been on stage. An increasingly steady stream of fans finds her, and they're polite and usually young and just want an autograph and they don't ask any hard questions about Chloe, but it's starting to annoy her. She just wants to spend an evening with Chloe.

"Want to just walk somewhere for a while?" Beca asks softly, just after another group of three girls had left with an autograph.

"Sure," Chloe responds, and they start walking to nowhere in particular.

"Sorry, I just want to get away from fans and be with you for a while. I should've known people would recognise me just after I've been on stage," Beca explains once they're a couple of minutes away, hands now joined and gently swinging between them.

"It's fine. You're so sweet with them."

"I kind of have to be."

"You don't like that part of things, hey?"

"I... don't know. I appreciate that people like me. Or the band. It's good, I'm not unhappy we've been successful or whatever. But I'm not a people person."

"I've noticed that. You don't even talk about people much, I don't know anything about your family or friends back in California... I mean, it's totally fine if you just don't want to tell me, but-"

"I don't talk about people much, you're right, it's not just you. But I want to tell you stuff about everyone and me and I don't normally want to do that," Beca sighs, trying to ease her nerves about what she's about to say.

They're in front of a grand building with a large set of stairs - it looks like a museum or something - and there are people scattered around them, huddled together, talking. Beca's not sure if she needs space or closeness for this conversation but she takes the risk, gently pulling on Chloe's hand to get her attention, and gesturing over to a spot off to the side, away from anyone else, and she nods. Chloe hasn't responded to Beca's admission, other than a squeeze of her hand, but Beca thinks she knows there's more to say and is just waiting for her to talk.

"I wrote a lot of the songs for Seven Keys, but none of the sappy love songs. I don't do feelings and crap like that. But I..." Beca feels herself stop, and she quickly shakes her head and take a deep breath, feeling Chloe pull her closer. "I wrote a song about you. It's a sappy love song, and it's probably the best song I've ever written. So we recorded it, and they want to release it as a final single kind of thing, but I get final say on whether that happens. Which actually means I want you to decide."

Chloe doesn't respond verbally at first, instead shifting to wrap both her arms around Beca in an almost-awkward sideways hug, burying her face against the girl's neck. Honestly, she's not quite sure what to say, because she feels like she's just turned into a pile of mush with Beca's admission. It was bad enough hearing that she was somehow an exception to Beca's need to be closed off, but a song? About her?

"I don't know what to say, but I mean that in a good way. You're so sweet," Chloe finally speaks, before somehow pulling Beca even closer again.

"I'm glad you're not freaked out or something then," Beca answers, her voice still nervous, and Chloe pulls away slightly.

"Nothing like that will freak me out, Becs. We both know that things between us are kind of... intense. I don't usually tell two-night-stands I love them and mean it, you know," her tone turns light as she finishes, and Beca grins, thankful for the tension easing.

"Have lots of two-night-stands, do you?"

"Technically you're the only one actually... the others are one," Chloe winks, and Beca just shakes her head.

"I know it's not technically my business what you've done for the last couple of months but like..." Beca trails off, instead making her point by wrapping her arm around Chloe's waist.

"You getting possessive there?"

"Maybe."

"Don't worry. I haven't slept with anyone since you. I kept getting drunk and hitting on girls that looked kind of like you but the uni friends always stopped anything happening," Chloe explains, and Beca is almost surprised at the honesty until she remembers who she's talking to. "I don't have to worry about you while you've been on tour, do I?" Chloe adds, teasing. She doesn't expect a response, really.

"Nope. You know I'm almost prudish when it comes to literally everyone except you, right?"

Chloe laughs at that, placing a kiss on Beca's cheek, slightly longer than any they've shared earlier tonight. Long enough to say something without speaking.

"Can I hear this song?" She asks, changing the topic after their comfortable, slightly sexually-charged silence has gone on long enough.

"You know, I was so nervous about telling you it exists I forgot to be nervous about whether you'd like it," Beca half-jokes as she reaches into her bag and pulls out an iPod and set of headphones, but Chloe can hear the seriousness behind it.

"If I melt into a puddle of happiness over this it's your fault," Chloe tells Beca as she takes the headphones, putting them on and watching as Beca presses play on a song on the iPod, titled only with a series of numbers.

Beca is worried about a long and silent three minutes, thirty-seven seconds, until Chloe starts reacting in real time. She doesn't say anything, but she keeps trying to move even closer to Beca, or she turns and gives a loving smile, and Beca notices her eyes tearing up as the song ends, but she can tell they're happy tears. She likes it. Beca can't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"Best song I've ever heard from you guys," Chloe grins, handing the headphones back to Beca. "Seriously, though, I love it. I love your voice. I love you… you should release it."

"You sure? My main concern is just… it's kind of obvious who it's about," Beca explains, and Chloe nods.

"Yeah, it is, but I guess… that's only because we know everything between us anyway? It's not like its public, and sure, some people will dig around and work it out, but… I don't really mind, if it's my opinion you're worried about," Chloe answers, Beca nodding.

"It is actually you I'm worried about. For once I'm not freaked out about putting something personal out there. I guess I should go tell the guys and apologise for snapping at Dylan…" Beca trails off. "Later, though," she adds, leaning her head against Chloe's shoulder, "this is nice."

Beca lets herself start talking to Chloe only a few minutes later, forcing her own walls apart to let Chloe in. She talks about her weird friendship with Ashley, as close as anything after fifteen years but still quiet on the feelings – but getting better, she hopes. She talks about how she's never really liked kids, but she's kind of made an exception for Tristan's little girl, and she thinks Tristan's wife is pretty cool too. She mentions that her parents are not exactly together, and she's only recently got back in proper contact with her mother, but she leaves the detail of that mess for another time.

"Are you going straight back to Sydney from here?" she asks Chloe, when their conversation reaches a natural pause.

"No, via LA. 2nd to 6th… will you be around?"

"Yeah, we're heading back to California tomorrow. Do you want to meet Ashley while you're there?"

"I'd love to. It's getting near midnight, should we head back to Times Square?" Chloe turns the conversation, and Beca nods, letting Chloe help her back up to her feet from the stairs. They're largely following a huge crowd back to where they were previously, the slightly more famous acts now performing on the stage and people trying to find the best spots to see everything that'll happen at midnight. Somehow they manage to find Dylan and Chris with only a few texts, confirming their decision about the song.

"Did you ever come up with a name?" Chris asks, voice raised slightly to beat the noise of the crowd.

"Would it be weird to call it Chloe, if it's not obvious enough already?" Beca asks, and Chloe laughs lightly at the suggestion. "What? It's a great name."

"Thanks, it definitely is," Chloe replies with a teasing grin, feeling the guys judge their cheesy interactions more than she actually sees any judgement on their faces.

"That works. You cool to talk to people?" Dylan asks, and Beca confirms, before Chloe & Beca both say goodbye and shift away to find their own space.

They're not really concerned about seeing the stage, and the fireworks are visible from everywhere anyway. They just want to be with each other.

"I know it's super cheesy to ask, but we've kept it pretty PG tonight so like…" Chloe starts, about a minute from midnight. "Can I kiss you at midnight?"

"Definitely," Beca answers, fighting her shyness to add, "I mean, you could kiss me now if you wanted to."

So Chloe does just that, the two girls only breaking apart as the countdown starts, and quickly returning to their kiss as the new year begins.

A happy new year, indeed.

* * *

 **A/N:** And that is the end of Seven Keys, only 87 days after I intended to post the ending.

I kind of like writing this little universe, but no promises of anything more at the moment.


	11. Epilogue: What Now?

**A/N:** An accidental epilogue because I'm not great at ending stories. This will be the last chapter on this fic though, anything else will be posted in a separate oneshots thing.

* * *

The two girls eventually broke apart from their kiss, although they didn't go far, Beca wrapping her hands around Chloe's waist and nuzzling her face against her neck, taking advantage of their height difference. After a few moments, they eventually released their holds on each other, turning and looking up at the fireworks launching from the buildings around them with the rest of the crowd. Neither girl could believe that this was the start to their year, and neither really knew how to express that, so they both remained quiet as they watched the show playing out above them, letting tension simmer between them.

"What now?" Chloe asks, as the fireworks finish, turning to face Beca for the first time since midnight, feeling as if the air around them was becoming charged with feelings. She's not sure if the night will end in one of their hotel rooms, but she wouldn't mind if it did.

"I don't know. But I'm not letting go of you," Beca replies, more adamant than romantic in her tone, and Chloe laughs.

"I'm cool with that. Let's just walk somewhere?" Chloe suggests, and Beca nods in agreement before reluctantly shifting her arm from around the redhead's shoulders to hold her hand.

They disperse with the crowd, not trying to walk any faster than or fight the mass of people starting to walk from Times Square out into the surrounding streets. They have all the time in the world tonight and they don't really have a destination in mind.

They end up following a substantial portion of the crowd down Fifth Avenue and in to central park, the park quieter than the surrounding streets but definitely livelier – or at least, more family-friendly – than it would usually be, approaching 1am. Their light conversation is comfortable and familiar, not-so-subtle flirtation dispersed throughout, neither girl particularly concerned with hiding their affection tonight. They circle through the park, before heading back up into the city, Beca gradually slowing and stopping in front of a large building half a block away.

"I'm staying in this hotel…" she trails off.

"I'm a few blocks from here, but I guess you know that."

"I don't want you walking back by yourself," Beca replies, but Chloe can read between the lines.

"And I don't want you walking from mine back to here by yourself, so clearly the only solution is for me to crash your room tonight," Chloe replies, matter-of-factly, knowing Beca wanted to ask her to come up to her room anyway.

"You think that's a good idea?" Beca asks, suddenly seeming uncertain, and Chloe quickly calms herself down, ready to backtrack.

"If you don't want me to, I won't; I thought you were trying to ask me to come up without saying it," she explains.

"I was, but now I'm second-guessing myself because like we just kind of reconnected and we both know what's going to happen if we share a bed," Beca answers, her tone turning joking as she falls into her usual defence mechanism for whenever she feels awkward and unsure about following her own desires.

"I'm just going to be… direct, you know that's how I am," Chloe starts, cautiously, waiting for Beca to nod in understanding before she continues, "I want to sleep with you tonight whether that means having sex or not. I'd be surprised if you can't feel the sexual tension between us and yeah I want that to happen, but it's entirely up to you whether it does or not. I know it's been a couple months since last time, and it kind of feels like we're jumping into too much too quickly, but our relationship isn't just based on sex. It wasn't just sex last time and it wouldn't be this time, there's always emotional build-up to that point, not just physical. And I mean…," she pauses, taking a breath, watching for a moment as Beca's eyes move through a range of emotions she can't quite pick up. "When you told me you're moving to Sydney I started thinking of all these cute dates I want to take you on and everything I want to show you, and how much I want you to meet my Mum because I tell her absolutely everything so she knows how much I like you, and how much I want you to meet Aubrey. And I also want to go up to your room and rip your clothes off, but that doesn't devalue anything else I want to do with you-"

Chloe is not surprised when Beca finally cuts her off, a rushed, whispered 'I love you' falling from her lips before she brings her hands to cup Chloe's face and pulls her into a kiss. It's almost the reverse of what Chloe expects, the initial heat and intensity slowing as it is replaced by raw emotion, and part of her almost needs to cry from the intensity of it all.

"You're right. C'mon," Beca tells her, simply, when they finally break apart, letting go of Chloe only to take her hand and lead her inside the hotel and up to her room. Somehow, they resist the urge to start making out in the elevator, knowing security is probably watching given what night it is.

The first thing Chloe notices, after Beca has fumbled around in her bag and found the keycard to unlock the door, is that it's a much more luxurious room than the one in Toronto, and certainly fancier than the budget place she's in.

"The promoters of the event put us up this time," Beca says, by way of explanation, noticing as Chloe's eyes scan around the room. Chloe doesn't reply, simply nodding, pausing a moment to take in the surroundings, before grinning at Beca and pulling her down onto the bed with her. They both laugh as they attempt to fall into a comfortable position without hassle, inevitably failing as Chloe's shoulder bumps against Beca's cheek, the shorter girl having not fallen quite as far back.

"Weirdo," Beca teases, turning on to her side as she shifts up to face level with Chloe, their lips meeting in a bruising kiss.

* * *

This time, there is no awkwardness the next morning, and no worrying about what comes next. They order breakfast to the room in the mid-morning, sitting on the bed and joking around as they eat. Beca can't help but pause, trying to take stock of everything that has happened in the last 14 hours and how it's actually real. She's not really used to this much change and she thought she'd be more scared that she is.

"What's with the introspection?" Chloe pushes, noticing the girl's attention wandering.

"It's weird how normal all of this feels," she replies, trying to gather her thoughts, knowing she should say more than seven words. "Like, okay, I've had a couple months to process that I'm into girls, and that I like you a ridiculous amount and even that I'm moving overseas to go to college but like… the fact that in less than an hour my band is releasing a very personal song I wrote about you, and that I suddenly actually enjoy just spending time with someone, and that I want to be open and vulnerable and whatever and that I even explained this instead of just deflecting the question… it's new. And don't get me wrong, I like it. I'm less grumpy already. But it's new."

"The song's releasing at 10am New York time?" Chloe questions, picking up the middle of Beca's admission, biting back her entirely too sappy response to the rest of it.

"Yeah. I need to write stuff for Twitter promo and whatever, actually. Sorry, I never explained we had all this planned out if I decided to release it, the three of us and the label are all going to link to the song release and explain that we're finishing up and moving on with our lives," Beca explains, reluctantly shifting off the bed to grab her laptop from her suitcase.

"I'm really happy you want to open yourself up to me, by the way, Beca. It makes me feel kind of special and important to you and I'm glad that you like all this stuff too. It just might take a while to get used to," Chloe adds, watching as Beca rejects the desk option, instead rearranging some pillows against the bedhead and sitting up against it, laptop on her outstretched legs as she reaches for another piece of fruit from the breakfast tray between them.

"Well, you are important to me, so," Beca answers, shrugging and looking down at the laptop in front of her to try and hide her blush.

"You're gonna have to stop getting embarrassed when you say cute things to me, y'know," Chloe teases, going to shift beside Beca before hesitating, not wanting to interrupt what is technically her work. Beca must sense her hesitance, though, rearranging the cushions behind her make room for Chloe, beckoning her over.

"I'll work on it," Beca answers, "now what on earth am I going to write? That's not a rhetorical question by the way, please help me."

Beca can't fit everything she wants to say in a tweet, so it ends up being a screenshot of her notes app which she usually hates, but whatever, this is probably the most technically important news she's ever posted. To some of their fans, at least. She almost feels bad when the first few replies are emphatic disappointment, but there is quickly a lot more people supporting her decision, and she feels kind of warm and fuzzy as she reads back over her post.

" _Seven Keys' new song 'Chloe' drops right now – iTunes, Spotify and Apple Music!  
A little sad to say that this will be the last thing we release. Dylan, Chris & I made the mutual decision a few months ago that we had fun doing this, but we wanted to move on with our lives. We weren't intending to release anything after the last album, but I wrote this song about someone pretty important to me, and we couldn't not release it. We hope you like it, and thank you for all the support over the last few years.  
Beca x_"

"Oh, shit, I should unlike that tweet of yours," Beca mutters, quickly switching in to her likes and scrolling down a little way to find it.

"Why?"

"The song is named Chloe. There'll be people trawling through my social media to find any interactions with someone named Chloe."

"Oh, right, yeah, let's not get your fans onto me that easily…" Chloe trails off, shaking her head. "The people that got autographs last night will totally know it's me, though."

"Yeah, I'm sure people will work it out, but at least we're not big enough that we have hordes of fans that'd track you down and say stupid shit to your or anything, I hope. And, hey, it is a good song, even if I do say so myself, but I don't think it'll chart or anything."

Beca leans over to place her laptop on the side table, shifting back to Chloe, intending to move their conversation back to the light-hearted banter they were enjoying before she had to post about the song. The attempt is interrupted quickly, though, as Chloe's phone starts ringing, sat on the other side table. Chloe grumbles in annoyance as she reaches over for it, hoping it's someone she can ignore, her surprise clearly evident when she sees who it is.

"Who is it?" Beca asks, watches as Chloe looks confused.

"Aubrey."

"Isn't it stupidly early over there?"

"Yeah, like 2am," Chloe replies, "I should probably take it. She only calls when it's important."

"Hey Aubs, what is it?" Chloe answers the phone quickly, her tone mildly concerned as she shifts back to leaning against the pillows at the top of the bed, beside Beca, fully aware that the girl can probably overhear her conversation now and not really caring.

"Have you been on Twitter in the last few minutes? You met up with Beca last night, right? Did you know about this?" Aubrey rushes through her sentence, and Chloe just laughs, feeling Beca struggling to hold in her own response beside her.

"You're being rather unclear, you're lucky I do know, or I'd be super confused. Yeah, Beca's beside me right now. And she asked me before deciding to release the song, I heard it last night," Chloe explains, and Aubrey goes silent for a moment, Chloe wondering why.

"Chloe, this is why you update me on things! Are you guys like, dating now or something or did you just sleep with her again for the hell of it? I mean, did you sleep with her? Where are you right now? What did she want to talk to you about? What's going on?" Aubrey asks, accusatorily, and Chloe feels Beca shifting as if to move away and give her space to respond privately to Aubrey's incessant questioning.

"Hang on a sec, Bree," she says into the phone, before shifting it from her ear, "Becs, I really don't care if you overhear this, the worst Aubrey can do is try and embarrass me and I'm sure she'll do that when you guys meet anyway, you already know everything I'm gonna say to her"

"Wait, can Beca hear me?" Aubrey's voice floats out from the phone, and Chloe looks over at Beca, who shrugs, Chloe quickly deciding to just run with it and hold the phone between them.

"Kind of, yeah. Hi Aubrey," Beca says, a little awkwardly, and Chloe grins.

"Hey Beca! Good song, I'd probably say that even if it wasn't clearly about my best friend," Aubrey replies, and Beca just half-speaks an awkward 'thanks'. "How'd you get her to get over her stupid thing about distance and never seeing you again, anyway?"

Chloe scowls slightly at Aubrey's comment as she switches the phone on to speaker, sitting it on the bed in front of them and leaning back, mildly surprised that Aubrey and Beca both seem okay with this weird arrangement but happy to run with it. If Aubrey stops being an ass, anyway.

"I mean technically I… didn't? I'm moving to Sydney, going to the same uni as you guys. I applied the day before I met Chloe, I got accepted a couple weeks ago, that's what I wanted to tell her," Beca explains, a little nervous for Aubrey's reaction, wondering how Chloe would react if her best friend and Beca ended up not getting along.

"Oh, seriously? That's pretty cool, congrats by the way," Aubrey replies.

"Thanks. I'm gonna disappear as much as I can while still being in the same room and let Chlo talk to you, anyway."

"Okay, thanks Beca!" Aubrey responds quickly, and Beca shifts off the bed and over to the couch in the corner of the room as Chloe takes the phone off speaker and brings it back to her ear.

"So, dude, please spare the details, but what happened last night?" Aubrey asks, and Chloe starts to explain what happened.

"So… dating? Girlfriends? Is there a label on this thing?" Aubrey asks, when Chloe finishes.

"Uh, we haven't really said anything explicitly but it's kind of… implied?" Chloe answers, biting her lip and glancing over at Beca, who seems to be busy reading something on her laptop again. Still, she doesn't really want to say either of those words out loud.

"Implied which one? Because you know if she's not been with a girl before, girlfriend is going to be a pretty strong word."

"Uh…" Chloe doesn't answer, hearing Aubrey sigh.

"Don't want to say because she'll hear you?"

"Yup. I guess the first one you said is kind of implied, I kind of want the second?" Chloe tries to explain carefully, feeling Beca's eyes on her.

"You know, you should talk about that."

"I know. I don't want to like… overwhelm her by asking, or something, though. She's not exactly a people person. Being as open as she is, it's kinda new to her and stuff," Chloe explains, quickly looking up when she hears movement to see Beca putting a folded piece of paper in her lap before scurrying back to the couch, heavily blushing. She zones out of Aubrey's response, opening the paper and feeling herself melt.

" _If you're avoiding saying what I think… I'd like to be your girlfriend, if you'd like that too 3_ "

"Chloe? You there?" Aubrey asks, clearly having said something that needed a response.

"Um, yeah, sorry Aubrey, give me a minute? I'll tell you why after," she replies, flicking the phone onto silent and throwing it back onto the bed as she quickly moves across the room and slides onto the couch, half on top of Beca.

"I'd love to be your girlfriend. Sorry I couldn't like, ask you properly, I was trying to fend off Aubrey but like…" Chloe tells her, and Beca just shakes her head, kissing Chloe's cheek.

"I don't mind you talking to her about stuff. But, like, I want to talk to you about what we're gonna do in California and I have to leave in a couple hours, so y'know."

"Yeah, I'll try and get her off the phone," Chloe replies, kissing Beca's cheek herself before walking back over and grabbing her phone. "Hey, Aubrey? Beca's flying back to California in a few hours, I want to spend time with my girlfriend before she leaves. And I know it's like 2am there dude, you need to sleep. I'll talk to you later?"

"Did you seriously just leave me on hold while you asked her to be your girlfriend and probably made out with her?"

"Nope, she asked me and we did not make out. But we might soon. I'm hanging up on you, go to sleep," Chloe instructs her friend, making good on her threat and hanging up before she could say any more.

" _Bitch. Call me at 9am my time,_ " she immediately gets a text from Aubrey, which she chooses to ignore as she wanders over to Beca.

"So, California. What should I do with four days there?"


End file.
